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by **Martrae** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 1:34 pm

Lightning Strike Turns Scout Hike Tragic
Jul 30, 8:22 AM (ET)

By JULIANA BARBASSA

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - What was supposed to be a challenging 70-mile hike culminating in a midnight climb up Mt. Whitney to watch the sunrise turned to horror with a simple summer storm. When a group of Boy Scouts from St. Helena Troop 7001 took shelter from the rain, lightning struck, killing the troop leader and a teenage scout.

Ryan Collins, 13, died Friday night at University Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Mary Lisa Russell said. The boy's grandfather, Bill Collins, said Ryan was kept on a ventilator for a time so that his organs could be donated.

Collins said Ryan had been a scout for three or four years and loved the outdoors: "He was a fabulous boy," he said. "He was doing what he loved to do."

"We lost our son," said Ryan's mother, Sue Collins.

The troop's assistant scoutmaster, Steven McCullagh, 29, was killed instantly when the bolt struck Thursday, the Tulare County coroner's office said.

One injured troop member was under observation at the hospital and six others were treated and released from Kaweah Delta Hospital in Visalia, authorities said.

Sequoia National Park ranger Alex Picavet declined to identify the other injured Scouts late Friday while families were still being notified.

The scout group, including five adults and seven teenage scouts, had been on a nine-day backcountry hike along the John Muir Trail when a lightning bolt made a direct strike on one of two tarps they had set up in a meadow.

Two scouts then grabbed maps and ran for help for 25 minutes to a ranger station, where five helicopters were summoned to evacuate the group.

Meanwhile, other troop members kept at least one of their fellow Scouts alive by administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation for an hour, Picavet said.

"It's very difficult," she said. It's probably because of their Boy Scout training."

Scoutmaster Stuart Smith was among those treated in Visalia.

"I'm just not up to talking about it yet," Smith said from his hospital room, where he was meeting with scouts and parents. "It's too raw and too emotional at the moment."

The tragedy comes just days after four men were electrocuted while putting up a tent at the National Scout Jamboree in Virginia. Dozens of Scouts were sickened by the stifling heat two days later at the event.

This makes 10? scouts and leaders to die this summer?