US scout leaders killed in electrical accident
Four American Boy Scout leaders were killed in an electrical accident early today, during the opening day of their organisation’s 2005 jamboree.
The accident comes a day before US president George Bush is due to address the event.
The tragedy happened between 8.30pm and 9pm local time yesterday while the adult leaders were setting up camp at Bowling Green, Virginia, officials said.
One other leader and a contract worker were in hospital in a stable condition following the accident.
Those killed were long-time leaders with Anchorage, Alaska’s, Troop 711, which along with another troop had brought 80 scouts aged between 13 and 15 to the event, said Bill Haines, chief executive officer of the Western Alaska Council. Three other scout leaders had come with the group.
The scouts were relocated to another area, and chaplains and grief counsellors were made available. “The jamboree will go on,” said jamboree spokeswoman Renee Fairrer.
The deaths came a day after a Boy Scouts volunteer from North Carolina was taken to hospital where he died of an apparent heart attack, Fairrer said.
In 1997, a 16-year-old boy scout from Pennsylvania was killed at a jamboree when an Army Humvee he was not supposed to be driving flipped over. Three passengers were hurt.
Tens of thousands of boy scouts, leaders and volunteers from around the world are attending the 2005 National Scout Jamboree. The event opened at the US Army’s Fort AP Hill, a 76,000-acre training base about an hour south of Washington DC.
The jamboree runs until August 3, with President Bush due to speak there tomorrow evening. Scouts aged from 12 to 18 are to spend 10 days camping in tents and taking part in activities including archery, fising and a GPS-based scavenger hunt.
The Boy Scouts of America have held the event since 1937 with the next gathering set for 2010, the scouts’ 100th anniversary.
