Firefighters injured by lightning strike

By John Kamin, assistant editor
Published on Monday, June 28, 2004 1:56 PM MST

Four firefighters were hospitalized after lightning impacted the ground near the Noon Fire on Thursday afternoon.

Forest Service Public Relations Officer Gail Aschenbrenner said Scott Gorman and Jeff Every, both members of the Dalton Interagency Hotshot Crew, were sent to the Mount Graham Regional Medical Center after lightning struck the ground near them. The crew is based in Southern California.

A thunderstorm quickly approached the firefighters while they were standing on a rocky slope near the front line of the fire. Aschenbrenner said the two men were likely victims of an indirect strike that was conducted through the ground.

"We don't believe it was a direct hit," she said. "It was likely it was the lightning traveling underground."

She said a helicopter from Davis Monthan Air Force Base flew Gorman to the hospital, while Every's injuries allowed him to be transported off the mountain in an ambulance.

Gorman and Every both suffered first-degree burns and numbness in their lower extremities.

Two other firefighters named Travis Anway and Brandon Burrill were transported to the hospital several hours later for at least 48 hours of medical observation, Aschenbrenner said.

To contact John Kamin, call 428-2560 (Ext. 240) or e-mail him at johnk@eacourier.com.

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Comments

3 comment(s)

Lydia Brown wrote on Feb 6, 2009 3:00 AM:

" Well first of all i am Steven Browns older sister. And it has taken me two years to have courage to say that in this article, you degraded and pre judged my younger brother whom you knew nothing about, you assumed more then half of the story. He was 17 for crying out loud- his name should have never even been mentioned with this story. You were sure to emphasize every narrow minded comment about him-but never once did you use this occurance as a lesson others can learn from.a poor writer u r u have no compassion in urwriting. "

Mike Wikoff wrote on Feb 20, 2008 2:03 PM:

" Great work on bring back the "Mexican Wolf".

Now let's see if we can get the "Jaguar" reintroduced too.I'm a zoology graduate from No.Arizona U. presently living in Oregon. "

paige wrote on Jan 4, 2008 7:46 PM:

" caleb and jill are my cousins.
i have to watch him struggle to keep cool in the summer it breaks my heart to watch him hes 11 he should be outside running around like a 11 year old boy does "

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