Three girls were seriously injured when lightning struck them near Lily Lake in Summit County on Friday afternoon, authorities said.
The sisters — ages 2, 7 and 8 — were hit about 1:30 p.m., though a call for help didn’t reach Summit County emergency responders until nearly a half-hour later, due to the spotty cell service in the area, sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright said.
Two of the girls were in critical condition and were flown to a Salt Lake City-area hospital by helicopter. The 2-year-old, who was in fair to good condition, was taken by ambulance to a Wyoming hospital, Wright said.
The lake is a popular camping destination in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, located off State Route 150 near the Wyoming border. Wright said the family of five from Evanston, Wyo., was on a fishing and camping trip at the lake and was fishing along the shore when ”a storm rolled in very quickly.”
As soon as the lightning started striking, the girls’ father told them to move to a group of trees and get down, Wright said. That’s where the lightning struck, leaving the 7- and 8-year-old unconscious.
The father performed CPR and revived them, Wright said.
Wright said the emergency call was first routed to a 911 center in Wyoming, then back to Summit County, which delayed the response. However, several emergency personnel were already stationed about 20 miles away, he said, because they had been searching for missing hiker Melvin Heaps near Crystal Lake the past several days.
A week earlier, two girls, ages 8 and 16, were struck by lightning while walking a dog in Beaver County. Their families had been camping near Big Flat in the Beaver Mountains for a family reunion. The girls were flown to the hospital and were in critical condition initially, but they are expected to survive.
A 14-year-old girl died last year in Utah after being struck by lightning while riding a Jet Ski at Flaming Gorge Reservoir, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The year before, a woman died from a lightning strike at a family picnic in Lehi.
From 2007 to 2016, seven people died in Utah from lightning strikes, according to the NWS.
According to data updated Wednesday by the NWS, no one has died of a lightning strike in Utah this year, but there have been 12 lightning-related deaths nationwide in 2017.
The NWS stopped recommending crouching as a safety tip for people caught in lightning storms in 2008, its website says, because it doesn’t reduce the risk of being struck.
“Promoting the crouch gives people the false impression that crouching will provide safety,” the website says. ”... There is no safe place outside in a thunderstorm.”
While the NWS recommends planning ahead to avoid being stuck outside in a thunderstorm, several factors could increase the risk of being struck, including:
- Being in open areas
- Being on or being near the tallest objects in the area
- Seeking shelter under tall or isolated trees
- Being near trees in the woods
- Crowding together with other members of a group
“If in a group, spread out so that you increase the chances for survivors who could come to the aid of any victims from a lightning strike,” the NWS says.