Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Not to make light of a tragedy, but...

It's a bad time to be a Boy Scout these days.

Lightning struck a shelter at a Boy Scout camp high in the mountains, killing one youth and injuring three others, authorities said Wednesday.

The lightning bolt struck the Camp Steiner shelter, a log structure open on one side, Tuesday night, said sheriff's deputy Wally Hendricks said.

The rest of the Boy Scouts at the camp returned home, Hendricks said. No one answered the telephone at the Great Salt Lake Boy Scout Council, but the deputy said he believed they were all from the Salt Lake County area.

The dead scout was 15, authorities said. Names of the victims were not released.

Camp Steiner is in the Uinta Mountains, about 60 miles east of Salt Lake City. It is the highest Boy Scout camp in the country at an elevation of 10,400 feet.

A line of powerful thunderstorms had rolled across much of Utah on Tuesday, causing flash floods in the southwestern part of the state, taking out a bridge and closing a highway.

Last Thursday, an assistant Scoutmaster and a 13-year-old Scout were killed by lightning in California's Sequoia National Park. And four Scout leaders at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia were electrocuted July 24 in front of several Scouts after they lost control of a metal tent pole and it fell against a power line.


Oy. Rough year for the scouts.