Bonus - The Spark Ranger

HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

Bryan Orr

Training, Careers, Airconditioning, Self-improvement, Hvac, Business, Education, Refrigeration, Heating, Ac, Apprenticeship

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2017

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This special podcast episode focuses on the tragic life and times of Spark Ranger Roy Sullivan.

Roy Sullivan was a park ranger who was born in Virginia in 1912. He grew up in the 1920s when the mining industry was in full swing and had scrapped up the beautiful mountain landscape. In 1935, Shenandoah National Park was founded, and Roy decided to become a park ranger. He wanted to help restore the land and protect it from human destruction, such as the mining industry.

One of Roy's duties was to scope out the forest on the new fire lookout tower. That new tower had yet to have a lightning rod installed. One day, a lightning storm approached while Roy kept watch, and lightning struck the tower. Roy survived the strike, though he was badly burned in the incident.

In July of 1969, Roy encountered lightning once again. That time, Roy was driving a car. Although many people believe that the tires are insulators, most people are protected from lightning by the Faraday Cage effect; the current travels through the metal around you until it reaches the ground. Roy, unfortunately, forgot to close his window and had a lightning charge from a nearby tree strike him through the window.

Roy got struck with lightning yet again while doing yardwork a little while later after a transformer was struck by lightning. He was allegedly struck by lightning several times after that, including on a fishing trip where he ALSO had to outrun a bear after getting struck by lightning. However, even though Roy had the scars, these lightning strikes are unconfirmed.

Sadly, Roy died by a[n allegedly] self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, the legacy of the Spark Ranger continues through his ongoing world record for "Most Times Struck By Lightning."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This special episode of the HVAC school podcast is made possible by generous support from
0:04.9	Rector Seal, Testo, and Carrier. And the reason why this is a special episode is because this is the only intro.
0:11.3	I'm not going to do any additional ads or anything else
0:14.1	It's special because this really is a stretch to make it anything related to air conditioning
0:20.1	There is a little bit of electrical lightning talk as far as how lightning works and lightning safety and those sorts of things and so maybe you could stretch that to make it something to do with HVAC school. But really what this is is this is a piece of work that I'm proud of. I had a really fun time making it and I made it with a friend. My friend Jody Mayberry who produces a couple podcasts the Jody Mayberry show and the
0:45.7	Park Leaders Podcast and Jody is just a great guy.
0:49.5	His voice kind of sounds like Casey Kaysom and a couple years back Jody and I had an idea of producing a
0:54.6	podcast together about this particular subject. It's a story about a man named Roy Sullivan
0:59.8	who was a Park Ranger and so we talked about it and I wrote this script and then eventually
1:06.7	we kind of went back and forth on it and then Jody read it just recently and then I produced it into a podcast.
1:15.0	And for those of you who don't know with me, I've been doing podcasting before HVAC school.
1:18.0	I've produced a lot of different podcasts.
1:20.0	I really like the audio form, especially audio storytelling,
1:22.0	and I don't get to do a lot of the audio form, especially audio storytelling,
1:22.8	and I don't get to do a lot of the audio storytelling
1:25.0	style on HVAC school, so this is something
1:28.3	that I think you'll enjoy.
1:29.5	So just sit back and relax and listen
1:32.4	to the story of the Spark Ranger.
1:37.8	Sometimes you hear a story so fantastic that it feels like it must have been a myth or there must be more to it.
1:45.6	This is a story like that, but try to keep an open mind.
1:50.1	As mythology would have it, there was once a great war between the Titans and the Gods,
	...

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