Montville man struck by lightning lives

MONTEVILLE, Conn. (WTNH) - A Montville man is lucky to be alive tonight after being hit by lightning.

Firefighters say it happened right outside of his house on Fellows Road.

Jon Naholnik says the lightning entered his body through his left hand an exited out his right foot.

"I was coming out of the house over here to the car. I opened up the car door and then boom. I just fell straight backwards and I was stiff, and I don't know what happened," says Naholnik.

His family quickly came to his aide. He was unconscious.

"So, I kind of just put his head in my lap and he started to come to," says Brandi Naholnik, sister.

Still groggy, Naholnik says he is lucky to be alive. A burn mark is left on the inside of his sneaker as well as the burns to his foot and hand. But his pain goes beyond the obvious injuries.

"I felt like I got a sledge hammer to my head. It was pretty painful," says Naholnik.

The lightning which struck down the Afghanistan veteran Wednesday night was brought in by thunderstorms which also caused a fire at the DWT scrap yard in Montville and several power outages. Naholnik has always loved storms, but he'll watch them from inside now.

"I'm not going anywhere near cars or anything like that," says Naholnik.

"He is a tough guy, like I said he did a year in Afghanistan, he comes home and gets struck by lightning, what are the odds," says Brandi Naholnik.

All of Jon's nieces and nephews were able to stay home today because they were up so late with all the excitement and concern. But his oldest niece did go to school and she brought his burnt sock with her as proof.