Apparently Shelters ain't always safe either:
Authorities say Boy Scouts struck by lightning were in safe place
Associated PressLightning on Tuesday killed a 15-year-old Boy Scout and injured three others while they slept in this log shelter that apparently took a direct hit at Camp Steiner in Utah about 60 miles east of Salt Lake.By Paul FoyASSOCIATED PRESS
4:17 a.m. August 4, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY –
The six Boy Scouts had just gotten into their sleeping bags, bedding down in a corner of a log shelter against a violent thunderstorm, when a bolt of lightning struck like a stick of dynamite.
One of the Scouts was killed and three others were injured in the strike Tuesday night. A trauma surgeon who was staying at the campsite with another troop tried in vain to revive 15-year-old Paul Ostler, who had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing.
"I just sat on the bed and cried. I couldn't go to sleep. I was just sitting there thinking 'This poor guy,'" said Dr. Stephen Morris, director of the Trauma Center at the University of Utah Hospital, in an interview with KUTV in Salt Lake City.
Authorities said the heavy, elevated structure, open on one side, was the safest place the Scouts could have been during the storm. "From what we can tell, it appears the lightning hit a tree next to us, came down and came out of the tree and just into some nails that were driven into the cabin to hold the logs together," said troop leader Doug Edwards, father of one of the injured boys, who likened the strike to a stick of dynamite exploding.
Two of the injured boys were flown to a hospital and were expected to be released Thursday, officials said. Edwards' 13-year-old son was treated for minor burns Wednesday and released, he said.
Two other boys and another scout leader in the log structure were not injured, Edwards said. All six boys belong to the same Salt Lake troop.
Ostler's family released a statement thanking leaders and physicians at the scout camp "who tried so valiantly to save Paul's life."
The accident marked the second deadly lightning strike to hit a Boy Scout camp in the last week. Last Thursday, an assistant Scoutmaster and a 13-year-old boy were killed by a lightning strike in California's Sequoia National Park.
Four Scout leaders at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia were electrocuted July 25 in front of several Scouts after they lost control of a metal pole at the center of a large dining tent, sending it toppling into nearby power lines.
Camp Steiner, where the Salt Lake troop had been staying, is the highest Boy Scout camp in the country at 10,400 feet elevation. It's located in the Uinta Mountains, about 60 miles east of Salt Lake City. The victim's parents, Brent and Teresa Ostler of Salt Lake City, said Paul was an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in scouting, usually attained at an older age of 17 or 18. But in Utah, the Mormon Church advances its scouts more quickly so they can prepare for a proselytizing mission. SignOnSandiego.com.
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