Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Of the recent news in our region, two tragedies stick in my mind. Both occurred in Utah, and both were lethal.

First, on the night of June 17, a black bear tore into a family’s tent and dragged away 11-year-old Samuel Evan Ives, in a campground two miles up a dirt road in the Wasatch Mountains.

According to the AP:

… The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent in a primitive camping area, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The stepfather heard a scream, and the boy and his sleeping bag were gone. … The sleeping bag was pulled out of the tent (and) the boy’s body was found about 400 yards away.

Then, the evening of June 29, a wildfire in the foothills of the Uinta Mountains turned into “a cyclone of fire,” roared through a hay field and burned to death three farmers, who were trying to use sprinklers to save the field. It was also a family tragedy: The victims included 63-year-old George Houston, a retired U.S. Forest Service staffer who’d fought a lot of fires, and his 43-year-old son, Tracy Houston. They saved Tracy’s son, 11-year-old Duane Houston, by telling him to run for his life while they lagged behind.

Details on the bear attack, then the fire, and in both, the families:

The mauling of 11-year-old Samuel Ives is said to be the first bear-on-human fatality on record in Utah. Government wildlife agents and volunteers responded by hunting the so-called “renegade” bear. They used packs of “specially trained,” radio-collared dogs that roamed ahead, and a helicopter. They treed the bear, shot and wounded it, followed its blood trail for hours more, then shot it to death, and sawed off its head and paws as evidence.

The reporting on the bear attack dug up the numbers: Black bears have killed at least 17 people in North America in the past 20 years. That makes black bears, as a group, more dangerous than the less common grizzly bears, which have killed at least 13 people in that period.

The death of Samuel Ives includes a controversy: A bear had attacked a different camper in that area a few hours earlier, and authorities had not shut down the campground or posted warnings.

But the responsibility for the boy’s death falls on all of us: The causes are mainly human encroachment into bear habitat, and repeated years of drought — possibly from global warming — which make the bears more assertive in their search for food .

For the stories on the bear attack, click here for a summary, and for the shakeout including the execution of the bear, here and here and here. For discussion of the causes, click here. For the controversy over the earlier bear attack in the same campground, click here. And for the state government rethinking its bear and campground policies, click here and here.

As for the cyclone of fire, according to the Salt Lake Tribune:

The Houstons, of Neola, had gone to 75-year-old Roger Roberson’s farm to buy hay, and were helping him to move a set of field sprinklers in an attempt to keep the flames at bay.

… When the fast-moving fire was suddenly upon them, Duane Houston was told to run to the truck while Tracy Houston stayed behind to help his straggling father, Goodrich said.

… Roberson (also) died after being flown to University Hospital in Salt Lake City for burns and smoke inhalation.

George and Tracy Houston had plenty of time to escape the fire, said Tracy Houston’s brother-in-law, Bret Goodrich, but stayed to help Roberson. It was a gesture typical of the Houstons, Goodrich said.

“They were always helping somebody,” he said.

… State fire officials say the deaths were the first in at least three decades in which residents not involved in fighting a wildfire had been killed by one.

Among the causes of the killer wildfire, let’s also list global warming.

For details on how the boy escaped the fire, as his father and grandfather did not, click here. For insight into the Houston family, including George Houston’s long experience battling wildfires, click here. For insight into the Roberson family, click here and here.

Both tragedies highlight the everyday dangers in our region this time of year, the relationships of humans to the rest of nature, and the strength of families.