Posted on 08/15/2002 6:53:57 PM PDT by Coleus
EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. - Lightning struck and killed a 16-year-old at a Boy Scout Camp on Friday night, police said.
Matthew Tresca of Clifton was sitting at a picnic table under a dining tarp with 11 other members of his troop at about 7 p.m. Lightning struck a tent about 10 feet away, knocking Tresca to the ground.
Camp personnel tried to revive him before emergency crews arrived. Tresca, a member of Boy Scout Troop 21, was pronounced dead at the Pocono Medical Center.
He had spent the last week at the Resica Falls Boy Scout Camp in Middle Smithfield Township, about 70 miles north of Philadelphia.
Moments before he was fatally struck by lightning, a Clifton Boy Scout urged others to seek shelter, the boy's family said Sunday.
Sixteen-year-old Matthew Tresca was on a weeklong camping trip with about a dozen Scouts in Middle Smithfield Township, Pa., when a violent storm moved in about 7 p.m. Friday. Tresca, a senior patrol leader for Troop 21, ordered about six others to leave the picnic area at the Resica Falls Boy Scout Camp.
"Because of him, the other kids are alive," Tresca's uncle, Dan Marshall, said Sunday.
Marshall said Tresca was heading for cover when lightning struck about 8 feet behind him, knocking him into a picnic bench, where he became entangled. A counselor tried to free the boy, who was conscious.
"He said he was OK," he said of his nephew.
At that point Tresca's heart stopped, and efforts to revive him failed. He was pronounced dead at Pocono Medical Center.
Tresca was the eldest of four children. He had attended Don Bosco Technical High School in Paterson until June, when the school disbanded. He was to have started 11th grade at Clifton High School next month.
Marshall recalled his nephew as a well-liked and conscientious boy "with a witty sense of humor."
"He's going to be missed," he said.
Matthew Tresca of Clifton was sitting at a picnic table under a dining tarp with 11 other members ...Sad and tragic.
The other boys were lucky. A single bolt sometimes hits a whole group.
Living in Florida, at the first sound of thunder, most residents get inside.Deadly lightening strikes are frequent here.It is more unusual up north.
Bless him for saving his friends.
A very sad bump for the prayer list, billbears. I will be praying for the family.
Stricken Scout sent others to safety before being killed
God bless him.
Illbedamn.
I'm coming late to this thread, but... damn.
I became an Eagle Scout in a troop not far from this boy.
But, he got others to safety before himself. He did well. Small comfort to his family, but still.
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