Two Dead, 9-Month-Old Baby Injured In Gary Lightning Strikes
GARY, Ind. (CBS) -- Two people have been killed and a nine-month-old baby was injured as severe weather swept through Northwest Indiana on Thursday.
Angelo Santucci was working on a billboard in the 2700 block of West 27th Avenue when he was struck by lightning and killed.
His sister, Destiny Santucci, says Angelo was wearing a metal harness.
"It struck him, and they said it stopped his heart," she tells CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports. "By the time they got up there, the doctors told us there's only a window of time before they have to resuscitate him."
"Why was he up there? It was storming out. They're not supposed to be up there in thunder," the victim's wife, Sonia, said.
Santucci wasn't the only fatality in Gary. Another lightning strike caused a house fire, and authorities say there were multiple victims in the home, including a nine-month old baby and an adult who was transported to the hospital in cardiac arrest. The adult later died. A woman was also hospitalized from the fire.
That fire happened in the 1100 block of Jefferson Court.
"Lightning struck a home and it subsequently caught on fire. There were two occupants in the structure," Gary Fire Operations Chief Mark Jones said.
Chief Jones says the baby survived for airlift to Comer Children's Hospital.
