I see all over the net (eg, here: http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/swimming_pools.html ) that lightning and pools are a dangerous combination, but I can find NO reports of actual deaths from lightning hitting a pool and killing the swimmers.
Is this an urban legend?
David
Nobody actually died, but lightning did strike the pool.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/understanding/lightning_strike.shtml
Tony Grimstone told us that during the summer of 1976 he worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in Croydon, Surrey. One afternoon a thunderstorm started to develop. “We were trying to get the final few swimmers out of the water and the storm was getting closer. Another lifeguard and I were standing alongside the ten metre diving boards. There was a blinding flash of lightning and an almighty crash and the diving boards were struck by lightning. I was hurled backwards by approximately 15 feet into a wire fence. The lifeguard I was with similarly was thrown backwards. Although we were shocked (and deaf for the next three days) we were unharmed.”
Also, not everything is on the Internet.
Is lightning unlikely to hit a pool because, perhaps, there are usually fences and other higher metallic objects around?