SHELBY, IOWA — David Rodriguez was asleep in his truck at a rest stop near Shelby, Iowa, around 5:30 a.m. Thursday when the loudest noise he had ever heard jolted him awake. His first thought was that another truck had hit him. Then he saw the roof was on fire.
“First thought was, ‘Oh, I just got hit by another semi-truck.’ And then, obviously, I woke up. There’s lightning outside. I look at the roof, and it’s on fire, like instantly. Then it clicked, like, ‘Oh my God, I just got struck by lightning,'” Rodriguez said.
The Santa Clarita, California driver had been on a delivery route hauling cars from Southern California when lightning struck the roof of his cab. He had no time to grab his fire extinguisher.
“I just hopped out of the truck, knocked on another trucker’s door, and he helped me call 911,” Rodriguez said. “I tried to stay calm. I was perfectly fine, somehow.”
He described the initial bang as something like setting off a firework inside a bathroom. He was not injured. The truck was a total loss. His company sent another driver to finish delivering the fleet of cars. Rodriguez headed back home to Southern California.
Interviews courtesy of local media.
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