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Two 12-year-old Boy Scouts died within minutes of each other in separate tragedies on Wednesday — one drowning while scuba diving in Bear Lake and the other struck by lightning while camping near Scofield Reservoir.

"The entire scouting community is devastated by this," said Vic Rowberry, a spokesman for the Salt Lake office of the Boy Scouts of America. "Our concerns right now turn to the families of those who were there and for the victims' families."

Added Boy Scouts spokesman Rick Barnes: "We've had single incidents, but we have never had two in one day in different locations affecting our council like this."

A troop was at Scofield Scout Camp near Madsen Bay at Scofield Reservoir when lightning struck at 10:50 a.m., said Carbon County Sheriff James Cordova.

The troop was on a knoll when a storm came in quickly, Cordova said. Scout leaders were taking the boys to shelter when lightning struck the victim and another 12-year-old, he said. Both boys are from South Salt Lake and the pair were at the back of the troop line, said Cordova.

The two were best friends, said Bishop Matthew Parson, who leads the LDS ward that took part in the camping trip. The boy who was killed invited the other along for the trip, he said.

Now, the boy's parents and two siblings are with family, he added.

"They're in grief dealing with the loss of their son," Parson said. "They wonder why, and are trying to figure out more details of how it happened."

Scout leaders tried to resuscitate the child, and emergency crews took over for nearly a half-hour, but the boy was pronounced dead before being flown by helicopter to Primary Children's Medical Center, said John Gailey, program director for the Utah National Parks Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Parson knew the boys and spoke with both families on Wednesday.

"He was really involved in Scouts," Parson said about the 12-year-old ward member. "He was here every week."

The injured boy was in fair condition at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo.

Rowberry said he understood the victim had been directly struck by lightning, while the second Scout was nearby, being stunned and sustaining "slight burns."

Gailey said the second boy hadn't realized he had been affected by the lightning, but asked to lie down. Scout leaders told Gailey the boy had a rash-like burn on his body.

The rest of the troop, which had left Monday and planned on a weeklong camp, returned to their homes in South Salt Lake on Wednesday afternoon, Gailey said.

"Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the families," Gailey said.

Cordova said the area has been pounded by southern monsoon weather for the past week and a half, but Wednesday's storm was an unusually fast-moving one that brought lightning, rain and hail.

"This storm really encompassed the area quickly," Cordova said. "Obviously we get storms up in that area, but it's been awhile since we had a storm like that ... it was extreme by all levels."

The incident marked the second fatal lightning strike in three days. A 56-year-old Price man was struck near Wedge Overlook, about 20 miles east of Castle Dale on Monday.

The other Scout who died Wednesday was a Las Vegas boy participating in a scuba diving experience as part of a weeklong aquatics camp at Bear Lake, said Rowberry.

Rowberry said the organization is still gathering information, but what is known so far is that a group of Scouts went out in the water to dive and the boy apparently became separated from the group around 11 a.m.

When the other Scouts surfaced and the boy did not, a search went on for about 30 minutes before he was found and rushed to a hospital in Logan, Rowberry said.

The boy had the proper equipment for the activity, including a buoyancy control vest, he added.

The organization has an aquatic and risk management committee that will investigate and review the incident to determine what happened.

Rowberry said the Bear Lake Aquatics Base camp — located on the east side of the lake — provides activities ranging from nature and conservation studies to archery and scuba diving.

Bob Mims contributed to this report.