It was sunny and hot and Daniel Jackson’s sorbet stand was slammed with customers Wednesday afternoon outside the Garfield Park Conservatory.
But about 2:30 p.m., the weather suddenly changed.
“It was very weird,” said Jordan Garrett, 17, a staffer serving the icy treats from a stand on the 300 block of North Central Park Avenue. “It got really dark and then it started raining, but just sprinkling,” Garrett said.
He and his boss, Jackson, saw a few blinks of lightning and then it began pouring hard.
As they hustled to try and find shelter they saw a group of kids still outside in the yard, or playfield on the grounds of the conservatory.
“I just turned around and watched the lightning bolt come down and I heard a very, very loud noise. It sounded like a gunshot,” said Garrett, a Senn High School student from the Rogers Park neighborhood. “Then I heard screaming.”
The deafening bang sounded like an explosion, said Jackson, 40, owner of Destiny’s Ice Water Company of the bolt, who saw the girl walk into the conservatory with a woman and another little girl. He got a quick look at the lighting bolt.
“It looked white, it wasn’t a zigzag — more of a white, straight line, a big line that came down,” said Jackson, 40, owner of Destiny’s Ice Water Company of the bolt.
“It came in a split second and went away,” Jackson said.
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They figured it hit a tree but then heard the wail of an ambulance and paramedics rushing to the field and then closing everything off.
The girl was lying in the field and staffers from the conservatory were doing CPR, Daniels and Garrett said.
Then paramedics took over, and about 30 of 40 minutes later, they brought the girl out on a stretcher. Paramedics were constantly talking to her, saying: “Honey, are you ok?” said Garrett.
The girl, whose age was unknown, was taken to Stroger Hospital, but Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt did not immediately have information on her condition.
A severe thunderstorm watch was issued at 1:26 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The watch is in effect until 8 p.m.
Check back for updates.
Tribune’s Armando Sanchez contributed
