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Filming The Storm: New Jersey Teen And Arizona Man Both Survive A Lightning Strike Live On Camera [Videos]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 22:18 PST, Jul 31, 2016

If it wasn’t for his bike, 16-year-old Ethan Riozzi-Bodine would not be here with us today after surviving a lightning strike on Bradley Beach in New Jersey. Nick Griemsmann in Scottsdale, on the other hand, was just plain lucky.

Riozzi-Bodine got a little more than he bargained for last week while filming an impressive storm over a local beach. He captured one lightning strike on camera, only to be struck by a second moments later.

According to a report by ABC News, Ethan had a problem with his bike and was waiting out the storm under “a little overhang” in Bradley Beach, capturing scenes of the storm over the water on his iPhone.

Ethan said suddenly the lightning bolt hit the ground “maybe 10 to 15 feet away from me.”

According to Ethan, “The whole ground just vibrated and it went up through my feet, up through my body, through my chest, and out through my arms.”

While you can’t actually see the lightning bolt that only narrowly missed Ethan, you can hear his reactions on the video.

Ethan told WFLA,“You… actually hear me get electrocuted in the video; I’m like ‘argh!'”

Reportedly Ethan had been riding home on his bike on Monday evening when the storm blew in, but suddenly his bike chain came loose, so he stopped near the beach.

According to doctors, Ethan’s bike was probably what saved his life. Reportedly, if the teen hadn’t been holding onto his bike, he wouldn’t be here right now “because my bike kind of grounded me because of the rubber tires and the rubber grips.”

“So if I wasn’t holding onto my bike, I wouldn’t be here right now talking to you.”

Doctors reportedly found high levels of the enzyme creatine in Ethan’s system, which is what occasionally happens after a major trauma like a heart attack, but other than that, the teenager was fine.

“They could not believe that he walked away from this, that he did not have any significant injuries,” according to Elaine Riozzi-Bodine, Ethan’s mother.

Ethan reportedly works as a lifeguard and said he will be taking extra precautions during lightning storms in the future, especially when working on the beach.

“You always think, ‘I’m invincible. I’m 16,’ you think that’s never going to happen, but things like that do actually happen,” he told News 12.

However, he did say that in hindsight the lightning bolt experience was “pretty cool,” while his mother thought differently.

Elaine told ABC, “I just think he’s extremely lucky.”

“I’m just blessed it had a happy ending. It could have very easily been a completely different story. I’m just very fortunate that he’s OK,” she added.

It turns out Ethan isn’t the only one to have a lucky break during a lightning strike recently, while catching the experience on camera. A Scottsdale, Arizona, man had a similar experience. Reportedly, Nick Griemsmann was streaming video live on Periscope at the time of his lightning strike.

Speaking of the storm, Griemsmann says on the video, “It’s raining hard now.”

However, just as he was speaking about how hard the wind was blowing, there is a loud crack of thunder. Suddenly a lightning bolt lit up the nighttime sky.

According to Griemsmann, he was so close to the lightning strike, he could feel the heat, and the hand he was using to hold his iPhone felt tingly.

“Wow! That thing hit right next to me,” he said. “It made me drop the phone.”

While Griemsmann was obviously excited during the experience, he did head to Instagram to post the video, warning his followers against using their iPhone to broadcast during thunderstorms.

[Photo via Flickr by Jerry Worster, cropped and resized/CC BY-NC 2.0]

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