A teenage boy was killed and four others were injured when lightning struck Mount Blue Sky on Sunday afternoon, according to the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office.
The fatal lightning strike was reported shortly after 1:20 p.m. Sunday, Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jenny Fulton said in an email to The Denver Post. County officials later identified the deceased victim as 15-year-old Levi Strobel in a subsequent statement Monday. Another victim, who was identified as Strobel’s younger brother, was transported to the hospital after the lightning strike.
Emergency personnel unsuccessfully tried to revive Strobel after arriving on scene, Fulton wrote.
His younger brother was airlifted to a Denver hospital, and Fulton said the sheriff’s office did not have an update on his status. The two boys were part of a five-person hiking party; two other members of that group, both of whom were adult men, sustained minor injuries and were not taken to the hospital.
In a , friends said Levi’s younger brother, 13-year-old Jace, “improved throughout the night, and the family remains hopeful as he continues on the road to recovery.”
The Strobel family are longtime members of the Erie community, according to the crowdfunding page.
Fulton said a fifth person, who was not in the hiking group, also sustained minor injuries and was not transported to the hospital.
In a statement sent from the Clear Creek County Coroner’s Office, Strobel’s family said the teenager had sought “to protect his younger brother, who was with him on the mountain” before Strobel was killed.
He brought immeasurable joy into the world and into the lives of everyone who knew him,” the family wrote. “That joy was rooted in his relationship with Jesus Christ and nurtured by the deep love he shared with his family.”
