13 hospitalized after lightning strikes ballfield

Powerful storms triggered by days of high heat sent six adults and seven teenage girls at a Rockland softball game to hospitals yesterday when a lightning bolt struck a pine tree near the field and electrified the ground, authorities said.

Earlier in Weston, a 37-year-old man drowned when he sought refuge from the heat in a pool, though police said he did not know how to swim.

The drowning occurred about two hours before lightning storms wreaked havoc from Rockland to the Merrimack Valley. In Methuen, two houses were struck by lightning about 6 p.m. and caught fire. One firefighter was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and released, said Methuen Fire Captain Cliff Gallant.

The girls injured by lightning in Rockland, all 14 and 15 years old, play on the Holy Family CYO girls softball team, run by a local Catholic church, said Rockland Deputy Fire Chief Bill Ferguson.

The adults and the girls were conscious after the incident and were taken to the hospitals as a precaution.

Ferguson said the scene was confusing at Memorial Park. Players and adults were dazed and unsure of what had happened when lightning sliced into the tree and bowled them over, he said. ''It was very chaotic," he said.

Randy Krupnick, 10, of Norton, was enjoying the sunny weather at a pool in the park when clouds quickly gathered overhead. Shortly after he and others in his family left the pool, they heard an explosion.

''It sounded like a bomb," Krupnick said in a telephone interview. ''You can't even describe it -- you could feel it under you, you could actually feel bits of lightening under your feet . . . It was very scary."

Then came the flood of ambulances. ''It was a pretty wild scene there today," his father, Bryan, said.

The emergency call came in about 4 p.m., as the girls' softball game was breaking up, said Ferguson. All of the people affected were taken to either South Shore Hospital in Weymouth or Brockton Hospital for treatment, he said.

Thunderstorms rolled across pockets of the state, cooling temperatures after two days of 90-degree heat and oppressive humidity.

Torrential rains in the northwest corner of the state downed 100 trees in Northfield and rained hail the size of ping-pong balls on Amherst, according to the National Weather Service in Taunton.

Today should bring some relief, with storms clearing up and temperatures dipping to the mid-80s. The average high temperature for this time of year is 79 degrees.

Yesterday, the mercury hit a high of 97 degrees in Hingham, and other Greater Boston cities and towns posted temperatures in the 90s, meteorologists said.

The humidity was higher than Saturday, but the coast was cooler. Sea breezes capped the high at Logan International Airport at 90 degrees, down from 95 degrees on Saturday, meteorologists said.

Government officials urged residents, especially the elderly, to avoid strenuous activities, drink plenty of fluids, and conserve energy.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation ordered all pools in Greater Boston to stay open until 8 p.m. yesterday, including two in Roxbury and Brighton that did not open as scheduled on Saturday.

All weekend, Mayor Thomas M. Menino had city workers check on the elderly in their homes or transport them to swimming pools or air-conditioned buildings. Officials also asked people to check on their neighbors. ''Knock on wood, it seemed to be going OK," said Eliza Greenberg, commissioner of Elderly Affairs.

NStar reported scattered power outages that were largely unrelated to the heat, said spokeswoman Margaret Norton. A transformer in Dorchester malfunctioned for reasons that were unclear yesterday, leaving 150 customers without power until 3 p.m.

The heat and humidity of the past two days drove Massachusetts residents to beaches, swimming pools, and air-conditioned shopping malls.

At Carson Beach in South Boston, parking lots were packed as beachgoers reveled in the ocean breeze.

Jane Alexander, 60, of Fall River, smiled as her grandchildren hopped barefoot over the sun-baked sand, squealing ''hot, hot, hot."

Shari Wallace, of Roslindale, brought her 2-year-old son Tristan to a sprinkler pool in Jamaica Plain. ''We're in for a long, hot summer," Wallace said.

But the heat also brought tragedy. Weston police were called about 2:20 p.m. by an resident of Concord Road whose caretaker was spotted languishing in a pool.

Yahaya Isabirye of Walpole apparently tried to escape yesterday's heat by venturing into a small, fenced-in pool at the side of the house. Isabirye was pronounced dead at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a spokeswoman said.

Fox25-TV reported last night that Isabirye worked hard and was about a month away from bringing his family to the United States from Uganda.

Globe Correspondents Emma R. Stickgold and Adam F. Jadhav contributed to this report.