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Two Members of Hotshot Crew Survive Lightning Strike

By Beacon Staff

Members of the Flathead Hotshots firefighting crew say their emergency training helped them keep calm, after two crew members were struck by lightning last week.

The crew was conducting a prescribed burn southwest of Whitefish last Thursday when a storm rolled in. The supervisor told them to start hiking out the quarter mile to where their vehicles were parked.

Heather McEvoy and Beau Morin were walking by a large larch tree when it was struck by lightning.

Both were knocked off their feet. McEvoy says she was numb from the waist down and Morin says his left side was numb.

Another crew member, Ichiro Stewart, is a trained emergency medical technician. He ended up carrying McEvoy to the vehicles while Morin was able to walk out.

Both were treated at the hospital and released that night.