Six full-time national servicemen (NSF) were hurt when a bolt of lightning hit the hill they were training on in Marsiling last week. The men were participating in a training excercise under a shelter during the time.
The NSFs, who were undergoing training to become officers, took shelter under a tree from rain at the time when the exercise was temporarily suspended, according to a Straits Times report.
Mostly in their late teens, the cadets were taking part in a platoon field-defence mission which required them to capture the top of the hill and set up chest-deep bunkers there to protect themselves against the “enemy”. Defence Ministry spokesman Darius Lim said the excercise was “temporarily suspended due to inclement weather”.
Colonel Lim said the injured cadets were immediately tended to by medics on site and a military doctor at the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Medical Centre. One officer cadet was released at the medical centre while the other five were sent to hospital for “further medical checks”, he said.
According to Col Lim, all six cadets were granted medical leave. Five have resumed training this week while a sixth will join the rest next week. One of the cadets now has hearing difficulties.
“The SAF has investigated the incident and has found that the unit had adhered to the stipulated training safety requirements,” Col Lim added.
This incident comes as no surprise as Singapore has one of the highest rates of lightning activity in the world. The hot and humid weather is ideal for the formation of lightning-producing storm clouds.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) revealed that 0.35 deaths were recorded for every one million people here between 2000 and 2003. Also between 1982 and last year, the NEA detected lightning on an average of 186 days a year.
According to lightning expert Liew Ah Choy of National University of Singapore’s (NUS) electrical and computer engineering department, when lightning hits the ground, its voltage spreads.
“When someone has two feet on the ground, the difference in voltages will push the current through the legs into the body and electrocute the person,” he said. A person standing up to 100m away from where the lightning current enters the ground may also be electrocuted.
Direct lightning hits are fatal. Nearly 200,000 amps of electricity, enough to power half a million 100W lightbulbs, will course through the person’s body. This can burst blood vessels, stop the heart and even leave burn marks.
Mr Soh Lye Huat, 57, experienced a direct hit at Tanah Merah Country Club last October. He died two weeks later from multiple organ failure.
While there is little we can do to stop lightning, we can take precautions to avoid being hit:
1) Don’t stay out in any open areas like fields, golf courses, or parking lots.
2) Stay away from all forms of metal
3) Stop swimming and get away from water
4) Don’t stand under tall objects like trees of towers
