1 dead, 4 injured in collapse at Snohomish County’s Big Four Ice Caves
One person was killed and at least four were injured Monday night in a partial collapse in the Big Four Ice Caves in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
The Everett Herald reported that the U.S. Forest Service said as many as nine people were injured, but the report is unconfirmed.
A 25-year-old man was in critical condition; another man, 35, was in serious condition; and a 35-year-old woman was in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center on Monday evening, spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. Gregg said the injuries range from head lacerations to leg fractures. Gregg wrote in an email that the injuries were still being assessed but are crushing-type injuries.
“They are likely all going to be intensive-care patients,” she wrote.
Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Shari Ireton said the total number injured was unclear late Monday.
The Herald reported late Monday that the dead person’s body had not been recovered from the scene.
County officials warned visitors in May to exercise extreme caution near the ice caves, which are a popular hiking destination, because warm weather was causing sections of the caves to collapse. The sheriff’s office said in May that visitors should stay on the trail and not stand on top of caves.
The temperature in Granite Falls was around 80 degrees at 5 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Grace Tam, an 11-year-old Lake Stevens girl, was killed in 2010 when struck by a boulder of ice near, but not inside, the caves.
Tam’s family eventually sued the U.S. Forest Service, saying that the Big Four Ice Caves failed to adequately warn visitors about the potential danger of ice avalanches. The lawsuit was dismissed, but now a sign at the trail viewpoint is installed in memory of Grace to warn visitors.
In late 1998, Catherine Stockton Shields, 27, was killed by falling ice when one of the caves partially collapsed.
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This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 6:48 PM.