Nan residents worry after four killed by lightning

Nan residents worry after four killed by lightning

Egat high-voltage transmission lines in Nan's Muang district. (Photo by Rarinthorn Petcharoen)
Egat high-voltage transmission lines in Nan's Muang district. (Photo by Rarinthorn Petcharoen)

Residents in four districts of Nan province who live near high-voltage overhead transmission lines are worried they could be in particular danger after four people were killed and another seriously injured by lightning strikes in the area.

About 100 families living near the Electricity Generating Authority (Egat) transmission lines in Muang, Song Khwer, Chalerm Prakiat and Tha Wang Pha said they feared the lightning was attracted by the transmission towers and lines.

They claimed the fatalities occurred after a coal-fired power plant owned by Hongsa Power Company  (HPC) in adjacent Xayaburi province of Laos started sending electricity to Egat as part of a power purchase deal through the 500-kilovolt transmission lines on June 2. 

However, according to news reports at the time, the four deaths occurred in Song Khwer and Chalerm Prakiat district before June 2, and two of the victims were in an open field and carrying mobile phones and metal objects.

Only the latest incident, in which a woman was struck and seriously injured by lightning while in a rice field in Muang district, was recent. It happened on June 17. She was also found to be carrying a mobile phone.  

Chamnarn Kanthayos, 50, a resident in Ban Ku Nua in Muang, said Egat staff had installed lightning rods at all houses, including his own, along the transmission lines. But people were still scared and worried about their safety after the four people were killed.

“Villagers now return home immediately and turn off all their mobile phones and televisions when the rain is about to start,” Mr Chamnarn said. 

Sataporn Somsak, who is on a Nan provincial committee monitoring environmental impacts, said he had talked to the vilagers living near the Egat transmission lines. They wanted Egat to clarify their concerns and that an academic study be made to confirm the deaths caused by lightning had nothing to do with the power lines.  

Most of Nan province has been hit by thunderstorms since early last month and the frequency of lightning strikes during May and June was higher than that period in the previous three years, according to Nan governor Ugrit Puangsopa. 


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