{"id":67134,"date":"2025-12-01T23:06:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T23:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67134\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T23:06:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T23:06:55","slug":"pinellas-teacher-struck-by-lightning-while-biking-in-peru-over-thanksgiving-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67134\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinellas teacher struck by lightning while biking in Peru over Thanksgiving holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – A Palm Harbor<\/a> Middle School teacher was critically injured after lightning struck him and his friend while they were mountain biking in Peru over the Thanksgiving holiday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Courtesy: Nicole Strockis <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

James Fernandez, his wife, and their five-month-old baby were on vacation in Peru with Yuri Botelho, Yuri\u2019s wife, and their baby.<\/p>\n

READ: \u2018Nothing Short of a Miracle:’ Polk County family welcomed home after 20 hours stranded at sea<\/a><\/p>\n

“Both James and Yuri are equally adventurous and love the outdoors. And they wound up going on a downhill mountain biking ride with a guide that they had hired down there,” Fernandez\u2019s friend, Bryan Lieberman, told FOX 13.\u00a0“And what happened was, tragedy struck. There was a freak lightning strike.”<\/p>\n

Sadly, Botelho was killed. But the guide was able to get help for Fernandez, Lieberman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Nicole Strockis <\/p>\n

The 41-year-old suffered multiple neck fractures and injury to his spinal cord. The father of two has already undergone emergency surgery in Peru.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE: St. Pete man arrested after stealing Cybertruck during test drive, causing $20K in damages: PCSO<\/a><\/p>\n

His family is now raising money online to pay for Fernandez\u2019s medical evacuation back to Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I would probably call his situation critical but stabilizing. They have yet to take him off his ventilator. They have yet to take him off sedation. He just had emergency neck and spine surgery,” Lieberman added. “And so it’s extremely touch and go right now. And we’re really hoping for the best so that he can get medevaced back to the U.S. \u2014 because he’s still in Peru \u2014 so that he can get the proper care that he needs here and then figure out what the long-term rehabilitation looks like.”<\/p>\n

Lieberman officiated Fernandez and his wife\u2019s wedding in Tampa Bay last year after the hurricanes prevented the couple\u2019s original officiant from being able to make the celebration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Courtesy: Nicole Strockis <\/p>\n

“James was just a guy doing really amazing stuff and building a family and enjoying life like all of us want to do,” Lieberman said. “Something tragic happened to his friend. Something tragic happened to him. And we’re just trying to get him and his family the help that they need, and they need it now.”<\/p>\n

READ: Florida leads nation in child drownings: New legislation aims to prevent tragedies<\/a><\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Before becoming a Pinellas County teacher, Fernandez used to work as a guide who led biking tours in Spanish-speaking countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He’s extremely high energy. He keeps us motivated and moving all the time and really gets us all involved as a family,” Fernandez\u2019s sister, Nicole Strockis said. “He ended up getting my kids into mountain biking. Has got me into mountain biking, too.”<\/p>\n

Strockis, Fernandez, and their sister are all educators in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Nicole Strockis <\/p>\n

“We kind of laugh a lot\u2026that we all ended up being teachers,” Strockis added. “But my parents are very nourishing people, and I think it’s really instilled in us to nourish others.”<\/p>\n

While Fernandez\u2019s loved ones continue to rally around him, the loss of his friend hits hard, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE: St. Pete business has been selling handmade pieces for 23 years<\/a><\/p>\n

“Our family is extremely heartbroken over the passing of his friend, Yuri, as well,” an emotional Strockis told FOX 13. “There are no words to describe how amazing of a man Yuri was.”<\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

“We do live in Florida where there is lightning. And I, unfortunately, have been caught in lightning while mountain biking with my kids here. And it’s scary,” Strockis told FOX 13. “To think of it happening elsewhere is really mind-blowing. I still can’t wrap my head around it, because it is such a rare occasion for something like that to happen anywhere.”<\/p>\n

The Source: Information from this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Ariel Plasencia with interviews with Bryan Lieberman and Nicole Strockis.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County<\/a>Wild Nature<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM HARBOR, Fla. – A Palm Harbor Middle School teacher was critically injured after lightning struck him and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,115,1157,554,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,14992],"class_list":["post-67134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-science","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us","tag-wild-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}