A student was killed and another injured after lightning struck an outdoor teacher course in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, officials said Thursday. It was announced on the same day that he was killed by lightning. Two People and two others were seriously injured in Washington, D.C.
The group with the National Outdoor Leadership School were just days into their journey and had set up camp near Enos Lake, south of Yellowstone National Park, when a thunderstorm hit the area on Tuesday evening.
Teton County Coroner Brent Blue said Thursday that John D. Murphy, 22, of Boston, died of a heart attack from being struck by lightning. Blue did not know whether the lightning struck Murphy directly or passed through something else.
The injured student was taken to an Idaho hospital for treatment and released on Wednesday, Shana Tarter, the school’s associate director, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.
School officials said nine other students, three instructors and two search and rescue members had stayed the night in the country after being struck by lightning.
Matt Hansen with Teton County Search said two people on the course who didn’t think they were capable of the 12-mile hike from the lake to the trailhead were helicoptered out Wednesday morning and the rest of the group exited. rescue.
Terry Watson, president of the National Outdoor Leadership School, released a statement, Describing the lightning strike as a “very sad day” To the school, its students and their families.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family of our student who passed away on the course and are focused on supporting their family through this difficult process,” she said.
Murphy’s family issued a statement saying that they are “shaken by grief.”
“We know that in his last moments he was with others who shared his passion for the forest and helped others,” the family said. “And he was doing what he liked best – being outside, because of the beauty of nature.”
The non-profit Global Wilderness School, based in Lander, Wyoming, teaches students to be outdoor teachers. The school said more than 330,000 students have graduated and there have been 13 deaths in school incidents during its 57-year history.
In 2011 a 20-year-old man training with the school fell into a 300-foot gorge while backpacking in India during rainy conditions.
His mother sued the school, but a Wyoming judge ruled that the man who signed the school’s release from liability prevented his survivors from suing the school.
