Bolt Hit as a ‘Bright Light’ : Lightning: The 12 victims recall how they were struck down, some unable to move for a time. They say the family dog took the full, fatal brunt, saving the others.

At first, Ann Dodier did not know what hit her.

“There was a bright light, such a bright light, I couldn’t believe it. For a second, I thought I was dead,” said Dodier, 31, from her hospital room in Loma Linda Monday. “And then it was like in slow motion, I fell backwards.”

In a sudden and unexpected hail and thunderstorm Sunday afternoon, Dodier and 11 other family members and friends were struck by lightning while vacationing at a campground near Big Bear Lake.

As many of the victims, most of them Westminster residents, checked on each other and shared stories of the incident, they mostly agreed that they were lucky to be alive and owed their good fortune to Muffin, a family dog who died in the lightning storm.

Several of the injured were hospitalized after the lightening strike. Only one, Dodier’s 6-year-old daughter, Amy, remained hospitalized late Monday. A Loma Linda University Medical Center spokeswoman said the girl was under observation for convulsions she experienced after the accident.

“Our dog took the brunt of it (the bolt of lightning), and she died and saved a bunch of other people,” said Muffin’s owner, Mary Woodbury of Orange, after being released from the hospital Monday.

There had been a very light, nonthreatening rainfall during the traditional horseshoe tournament at the annual outing that included about 30 family members and friends.

Suddenly, the marble-sized hail began pounding the Juniper Springs campsite.

A few moved under a tree, but most others sought cover under an awning attached to a tent trailer.

The lightning struck within a minute after the hail began falling, said Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy John Gentile, 28, a friend of the Dodiers who attended the outing.

“I felt a very big jolt of electricity,” Gentile said. “I also remember seeing a white flash of light and hearing a very hard crashing sound.”

The sound was like an exploding bomb and the impact knocked everyone to the ground, according to Michael Dodier, 28, a family member who was not injured.

The bolt hit a tree next to the trailer, struck the dog, then Michael’s 21-year-old sister, Ginger Dodier. Then it darted around the campsite, hitting several others.

“I just got up and I looked over (at the trailer) and everyone underneath the tarp was crushed against each other,” said Bud Dodier, Amy’s father, from Hesperia. “Everyone was screaming.”

As she regained consciousness, Ann Dodier remembers trying to call her husband’s attention to their daughter, who was having convulsions. But Ann Dodier could not speak.

“I could not feel anything. I could not move,” she said.

During the storm, Ann Dodier had been holding her 2-month-old nephew, who was not injured.

“He (the baby) fell on top of her as she fell and rolled over onto the ground,” Michael Dodier said.

Immediately after the lightning struck, Gentile’s fiancee, Johnna Dalton, looked after the infant.

Although Gentile also had been struck by the bolt of lightning, his Sheriff’s Department training took over.

Quickly, he separated five victims who seemed to be most seriously injured, including Ginger, who was lying on the ground next to the dog and thought, at first, to be paralyzed. He also made sure that 6-year-old Amy was kept warm and awake.

Several members of the group praised the rapid response time of emergency teams, including the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and park rangers.

Many of the group, nursing burns Monday, said the incident will leave lasting psychic scars.

The family had visited the San Bernardino National Forest every Memorial and Labor Day weekend for the last six years.

They had previously encountered bad luck, including a snowfall during their last visit. After the events of Sunday, many of those interviewed said they never wanted to return.

“The weather is too unpredictable,” Bud Dodier said. “We have bad luck up there.”

Woodbury, whose dog was buried in the park after the storm passed, said she would probably return some day but stay in a cabin instead of outdoors.

Amy should be released from the hospital today, her mother said.

“She does not remember what happened. She just wants to go home,” Ann Dodier said, adding that the youngster had already asked when they would be going camping again.