A Coquitlam man is one of two people to survive being struck by lightning after a storm rolled through the Lower Mainland Tuesday night.
Arman Shafazand escaped unscathed when, while checking the roof of his family's backyard rabbit hutch, he was hit by a bolt of electricity.
"For a split second, I could see all the light around my hand and even right through my left arm," he told CTV News on Wednesday.
Fearing that Shafazand had been killed, his family immediately rushed outside, where he was screaming in pain. They called 911 and rushed him to hospital but, after several hours and numerous tests, he was released. He said he felt numb but did not have a mark on him.
Another man, 38-year-old Keith Dunning of south Surrey, was struck during the storm, which cut power to roughly 15,000 homes in the Lower Mainland.
He was taken to hospital and also appears to be in fair health, after being struck while standing under some pine trees in his backyard Tuesday night.
Lightning knocked out power in the Austin Heights area of Coquitlam, leaving 1,352 homes between Austin Avenue, Dogwood Street, North Road and Townley Street without electricity.
Another 28 homes lost power in the 3000-block of Lougheed Highway while 10 homes were without power on Winslow Avenue.
By 2 p.m. Wednesday, BC Hydro said most of the outages had been restored.
- with files from CTV
