Lightning strike ignites tree near Worthington

WORTHINGTON — A bolt of lightning ignited a massive cottonwood tree early Friday morning, burning the tree from the inside out, all the way from top to bottom.

“We do have lightning strikes to trees once in a while, but not to the extent that this one was,” said Worthington Fire Chief Pat Shorter. “It is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Initially, firefighters sprayed water on the tree’s exterior, as well as through one of the holes burned in the top of the tree, which extinguished the fire on the outside as the interior continued to burn.

“We doused it as much as we could and I called the (Nobles County) Highway Department, and they brought out some barricades,” Shorter said. They barricaded the road, in case the tree or any part of it fell over on its own, and later, Paul Kepka brought in an excavator and a skid loader to knock the tree over and finish off the fire for good. Worthington Township also assisted at the scene.

“It was likely a rotten tree, probably a hundred years old,” Shorter said. “There was a five-foot diameter base on the thing.”