DELHI TOWNSHIP — A 15-year-old boy who had been riding a skateboard was struck by lightning Friday when he took cover from the rain under a tree.

        The lightning strike happened at 4:17 p.m. in the 200 block of Centerview Drive.

        John Miller was in fair condition Friday night at Children's Hospital Medical Center, according to a nursing supervisor. The Delhi Township teen had burns on one leg and singed hair, fire officials reported.

        Elaine Korb, 22, of Delhi Township called 911 when the teen-ager was struck.

        “We heard a loud crash, saw a big flash, looked out the window and saw a kid convulsing under a neighbor's tree,” said Ms. Korb of 262 Centerview Drive. “All I thought was to call 911.”

        The boy was hit in the front yard of Laraine Gessner's home.

        "I've never experienced anything like this before, and I'm 73 years old,” she said. “And I hope that I never see it again.”

        She described a bolt of lightning going through her tree and knocking the teen-ager on the ground.

        “He was yelling ... and he lost the use of his right leg,” she said.

        She said the only visible damage to the tree was a dead limb knocked to the ground.

        The National Weather Service in Wilmington said there was not an extreme amount of lightning in the area when the teen-ager was hit. Meteorologist Robin Belton said most of the lightning was concentrated in western Hamilton County. She said there were 101 lightning strikes in the region — which includes parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia.

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