1941 Four horses killed by lightening
The Mercury_Saturday 25th January 1941, page 2
FOUR HORSES KILLED BY LIGHTNING
Driver’s Remarkable Escape In Thunderstorm
FOUR horses working in a field were killed by lightning and two girls in a house were thrown to the floor during a terrific thunderstorm which swept through the Elderslie and Broadmarsh district on Thursday afternoon. Á man seated on the cultivator to which the horses were attached had a remarkable escape.
THE draught horses were the property of Mr F Reynolds, of Elderslie, and were being worked in a steel cultivator by Ernest J Duthoit an employee in a field about a mile from the homestead when rain began about 4 30 p m , Duthoit decided to take a short cut through the ploughed field to the nearest gate.
As the horses were moving slowly across the rough field, there was a blinding flash of lightning over their heads, and all four went down in a heap
The ploughman was hurled from the seat of the cultivator only a few feet behind the horses, and when he regained his senses he was lying about four feet behind the team.
“The whole paddock seemed to split in front of me and the noise of the explosion was indescribable” said Duthoit relating the incident yesterday ‘ I believe I owe my life to the fact that I was sitting on a rubber cushion, and had my feet on a wooden platform “
He said that the lightning seemed to strike one of the horses on the outside of the team first, and the last he remembered was seeing the team fall.
As soon as he realised that the horses were dead Duthoit ran to Mr W Blackwell’s residence He was exhausted and complained of severe pains above his hands. Yesterday his wrists were still sore
Mrs G Davis, who lives about l 1/2 miles from where the team was at work, saw the lightning strike. She saw a sheet of flame low on the ground, and although she directed her husbands attention to the incident at the time, it was not until late at night that she discovered what had happened
Mr F Reynolds jun. said yesterday that three of the horses had been bred on the property, and were valued at more than £150