Scouting event continuing despite leaders’ deaths

BOWLING GREEN, Va. – They were deeply devoted to the Boy Scouts, traveling thousands of miles to the woods of northern Virginia for 10 fun-filled days of fishing, archery and storytelling beside the campfire. One of their first tasks: Set up a large tent.

But the task went terribly awry when they lost control of a giant tent pole and it hit some nearby power lines, killing four Scout leaders as horrified youngsters looked on, said Bill Haines, a Scout executive in Alaska.

Karl Holfeld said his 15-year-old son, Taylor, witnessed the accident and was on his cell phone to his mother back home in Alaska when the electrocutions occurred.

The boys “all started screaming,” Holfeld told the Anchorage Daily News. “He said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, the tent is on fire, they’re being burned!”‘

The Scouts spent Tuesday reviewing safety procedures and mourning the deaths of the four men, but said the event would begin Wednesday as planned, with an evening speech by President Bush. A memorial service will be held during the opening ceremony of the Jamboree, which draws more than 40,000 Scouting enthusiasts from around the world.

Boy Scouts and adult Scouts from Maine attending the Jamboree are doing well despite the accident, an official of the Katahdin Area Council Boy Scouts of America said Tuesday.

Tim Archer, senior district executive with KAC, said 108 Boy Scouts and 12 adult Scouts are attending the Jamboree. Another 30 Maine Scouts are members of the Jamboree staff. They come from all over the KAC area.

“We have heard from them and they are doing fine,” Archer said. “This accident was unfortunate, but it did not directly affect anyone from Maine.”

The Jamboree area is large. The Maine contingent’s subcamp is quite a distance from the subcamp where the accident happened.

The Maine contingent left the state July 23 on three touring coaches. They will return Aug. 5.

The dead were identified as Michael J. Shibe, 49, Mike Lacroix, 42, and Ronald H. Bitzer, 58, all of Anchorage; and Scott Edward Powell, 57, of Perrysville, Ohio. Shibe had two sons at the Jamboree and Lacroix had one; the three children all returned home to Alaska.

Beurmond Banville of the BDN and Associated Press writers Larry O’Dell in Bowling Green and Jeannette J. Lee in Anchorage. contributed to this report.