El Mirage, Arizona: Four School Staff Taken to Hospital After Lightning Strikes Near Elementary School

Four staff members at El Mirage Elementary School were taken to a hospital on Friday morning, October 30, after lightning struck near the campus as strong thunderstorms rolled through the West Valley, El Mirage police and school district officials said.

Police received a report of a lightning strike at the school, near El Mirage and Waddell roads, at 8:39 a.m., according to Lt. Jimmy Chavez of the El Mirage Police Department. Officers and firefighters who reached the campus found four adults who had been affected at the school bus drop off area. All four were conscious, were evaluated by medical personnel at the scene, and were then transported to a local hospital for further treatment, Chavez said.

The district says no one took a direct strike

Dysart Unified School District spokesperson Ryan McGinley said the four were staff members who reported feeling effects from a strike that landed nearby. "No one was struck by lightning; they felt the effects of a nearby strike," McGinley said. That distinction matters for how the injuries are understood: the staff were close enough to a strike near the campus to need hospital evaluation, and officials have not described their conditions beyond saying all four were conscious when they were taken for treatment.

No children were injured. FOX 10 Phoenix reported the call came in just after 8:30 a.m. for a reported lightning strike at the bus drop off, and FOX Weather, citing FOX 10, reported that no children were hurt in the incident.

Shelter in place lifted, classes on schedule

When students arrived on Friday morning, the school put a precautionary shelter in place order into effect after lightning struck in the area, McGinley said. Police and fire crews arrived after staff reported the effects of the strike. The shelter in place order has since been lifted, and classes continued on their regular schedule for the rest of the day.

Out of caution, the school canceled outdoor recess and kept outdoor transitions between classes to a minimum, according to McGinley. Those steps kept students inside while storms remained in the area on a morning when lightning was frequent across the city.

A rough morning of storms in El Mirage

The strike near the school came during several rounds of heavy storms in El Mirage. Meteorologist Matt Falerno monitored rounds of storms that brought heavy rain and dime to nickel size hail from about 7:15 to 7:30 a.m. and again from 7:40 to 7:50 a.m. Residents reported about 10 cloud to ground lightning strikes during the morning storms, according to the National Weather Service reporting cited by the Arizona Republic.

More rain was expected later on Friday, with flood watches in effect for parts of central Arizona on October 30. Forecasters expected showers to build again through the late morning and afternoon before conditions eased, with Halloween daytime expected to be mostly cloudy and far calmer, and another round of showers possible overnight into November 1.

For families in the Dysart district, the practical facts on Friday were narrow and reassuring: the four staff members were awake and talking when medics took them to a hospital, no student was hurt, and the school day went ahead indoors under a normal schedule once the shelter order was lifted.