11 Boy Scouts Injured In Lightning Strike On N.M. Mountain
CIMARRON, N.M. (AP) – Officials say eleven boy scouts hiking up a New Mexico mountain were injured in a dry lightning strike yesterday.
Marcal Young, scout executive director for the Caddo Area Council, say six of the boys come from the Arkansas and Texas scouting group based in Texarkana. Young says the boys were on Baldy Mountain, the highest peak in the area, when the bolt struck yesterday afternoon.
Most were taken by ambulance to a local hospital. One boy flew by helicopter to a Santa Fe hospital. However, Young says all are now released from medical care and have returned to Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico.
Young planned to release names of the injured later today. Philmont Scout Ranch is about 200 square miles of wilderness, including the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. At its base, the ranch is 6,500 feet above sea level. Baldy Mountain rises more than 12,000 feet above sea level.
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