3 Boy Scouts electrocuted in Zamboanga City jamboree

RESCUED Rescuers rush to save the 15 Boy Scouts who got electrocuted when the tip of the tent they were moving to the campsite in Barangay Pasonanca, Zamboanga City, hit a live wire. Three of the Boy Scouts died. -JULIE ALIPALA

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Mayor John Dalipe called off a citywide Boy Scout jamboree here that began on Wednesday and was to run until Dec. 15, after 15 scouts suffered an electric shock, three of them dying while transferring a tent from the road on Thursday.

The 15 boy scouts electrocuted were helping move a canopy tent from the roadside to the campsite at Freedom Park, Sitio Abong-abong, Barangay Pasonanca, shortly before 9 a.m. on Thursday when the tent hit a live wire, said the police in a report.

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Three of the four senior scouters died while being rushed to the Zamboanga City Medical Center.

The other victims were given first aid on site before also being brought to the hospital for treatment.t

Police Staff Sergeant Alwasier Ladja, investigator of the case, said Butch Ignacio Alejabo, overall in charge of the Boy Scouts Jamboree, instructed the students to transfer the tent from the road going to the camp.

More or less 15 students responded and helped.

The scouts were still cheering when they helped carry the four metal tubes that held the canopy, oblivious that the canopy’s tip had hit a live wire.

“Unluckily, the pointed tip of the tent accidentally hit the live wire of Zamcelco (Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative),” Ladja said.

“It’s very sad and unfortunate,” said lawyer Jose Rizalino Ortega Jr., council chairperson of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, when he confirmed the tragic incident.

Names of the three who died were withheld, but two of the victims were senior high school students of Zamboanga City High School, and one was a senior high school student from Barangay Recodo. —JULIE ALIPALA