McArthur High student dies after apparent lightning strike in Pembroke Pines

An 11th-grade student at McArthur High School died Wednesday evening after he was apparently struck by lightning in Pembroke Pines, according to officials.

Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue found the student lying motionless underneath a tree in the 600 block of Southwest 67th Avenue, a residential area not far from the high school. He was in cardiac arrest and taken to Memorial Regional Hospital as a trauma alert, Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue Division Chief Jason Stepp said in an email Thursday afternoon.

“We don’t have confirmation yet, but it does appear as though the patient was struck by lightning with burn wounds noted to the patient’s chest and inner thighs,” Stepp wrote.

The student died Wednesday evening, McArthur High Principal Mark Howard said in a message to parents Thursday. The student was identified in the message, but his name was redacted in the copy of the message school district spokespersons shared with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“Though I’m unable to share additional details regarding the student’s untimely death, I offer my deepest condolences to the student’s family and loved ones, teachers and classmates,” Howard said. “He will be missed.”

Grief counselors will be at the school starting Friday and will be “for as long as it is necessary,” Howard said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were 444 deaths from lightning strikes in the U.S. between 2006 and 2021. Florida and Texas are the only two states with more than 30 deaths in that time frame, the data shows.

“Florida is considered the ‘lightning capital’ of the country, with more than 2,000 lightning injuries over the past 50 years,” the CDC’s information says.

Out of the 10 people who have died from lightning strikes nationwide so far in 2024, Florida has recorded the most, with four deaths, data from the National Weather Service shows. A 19-year-old man was struck by lightning in June while running under a tree in Davie, according to the NWS data.

Deaths from lightning strikes nationwide in the past decade have ranged from a low of 11 deaths in 2021 up to as many as 40 deaths in 2016, the NWS data shows.

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