Ottawa barbecuer captures the moment he was almost struck by lightning

Sarp Kizir said he's lucky to be alive after an afternoon barbecue took a turn, and he was almost struck by lightning.

"It felt like something that was just extraordinarily out of this world," Kizir told As It Happens guest host Robyn Bresnahan. 

"It was very quick, it was very intense and it was extremely loud."

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The Ottawa food writer caught the entire near-death experience on video, which he posted to his Twitter account.

Ottawa man captures the moment he was almost struck by lightning

7 years ago

Duration 0:25

Sarp Kizir was grilling up some tomatillos to make salsa on Monday afternoon when he was almost struck by lightning — and he caught it all on camera.

It started out as normal Monday afternoon, as Kizir was making salsa in his backyard.

"I really don't like the jarred salsa that they sell at grocery stores near the chip aisle, so I was going to make a salsa verde on my barbecue grill using tomatillos," he said.

'Gigantic lightning bolt'

When it started raining, Kizir took out his phone to capture the sound of the rain to create his own meditation video.

That's when the lightning struck.

"As I was doing that, this gigantic lightning bolt smashed down somewhere within about 10 feet of me or something like that and I captured the whole thing on video," Kizir said.

While he wasn't injured, Kizir said the jolt shocked him and and he let out a stream of expletives — which were caught on the video.

"I laughed for a good 10 minutes after that happened, I guess just from the shock and adrenaline that was going through my system," he said.

Kizir then sent the video, which shows the bolt of lighting, to his girlfriend. That's when the severity of what happened began to sink in.

"She was asking me if I was OK and everything," he said.

"I was in a state of shock as well so I was describing how I felt and what I was going through."

Kizir said the lightning didn't cause any damage that he can see, but admits he doesn't have any plans to climb up on his roof to get a better look.

"I'm not taking any chances with going up on my roof because of my streak with bad luck," he said.

'One in a billion chances'

Kizir has never come this close to being struck by lightning before, but he said the fact that he captured it on video is pretty unbelievable.

"I'm pretty surprised that that happened. It's like a one in a billion chance of being struck by lightning, but also catching it on video."

As for the salsa, Kizir did end up finishing it and enjoyed the meal with his girlfriend.  

"It was a huge hit," he said.  

Written by Sarah Jackson. Produced by Samantha Lui.