Bartica boat captain disappears in river after lightning strike

Sep 18, 2012 News

Daniel Colinet, a 46-year-old boat captain, of West Indian Housing Scheme, Bartica, is now missing after lightning struck him while he was piloting a Boat in the Kartabo Area, Lower Mazaruni River, yesterday around 15:45 hours.
Colinet was on one of his daily afternoon trips taking students back home to Kartabo from Bartica in his vessel “Miss Emma” when a squall developed. This was accompanied by lightning.

Injured: Mark Klass

A bolt struck Colinet and hurled him overboard just after he had attempted to touch Mark Klass, a student who was sitting just in front of him. Klass is now hospitalized in the Bartica Hospital complaining of not hearing any thing.
The other students, about 14, were momentarily unaware of what had transpired behind them, but another student, Ravi Creame, after becoming aware of what was happening about them, then took control of the vessel and steered it safely ashore to the Kartabo Beach.
A search party was immediately dispatched from Bartica to the location where only Colinet’s partly seared life Jacket was found floating.
Mysteriously, the “Miss Emma” and outboard engine were all found to be intact. These were taken back to Bartica by another Boat Captain, Conrad Hicks, a/k “Speedy”.
Colinet and Hicks are employed with the Educational Department within the Region Seven Democratic Council. (Edward A Persaud)