ESMAIL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-08-11 published
Lightning strike kills professor
Friend made frantic 10K run for help
Tragedy on Killarney wilderness trip
By Roberta
AVERY,
Special To
The
Star
Killlarney, Ontario -- A Concordia University professor was killed
Tuesday evening when lightning struck the ground near his tent
during a hiking trip to a remote lake in Killarney wilderness
park with his son and a friend visiting from Russia.
After the lightning strike, the Russian, 19-year-old Anton
SORTUNATOR,
made a frantic 10-kilometre trek over rough terrain in a vain
attempt to get help for Victor
ROSSOKHATY, 48, of Montreal. The
hike along La Cloche Silhouette Trail from Lake Topaz normally
takes at least five hours to complete but
SORTUNATOR made it
to the park gate in just 90 minutes.
"It's very rough terrain, it's considered an advanced trail,"
said Cam HOEPP, assistant park warden at Killarney Provincial
Park, which lies about 100 kilometres southwest of Sudbury.
Paramedics, who arrived by air ambulance a short time after
SORTUNATOR
raised the alarm, still had to hike about 600 metres into the
bush up some craggy slopes to reach the remote campsite.
Since ROSSOKHATY had no vital signs, the paramedics, deciding
it was too dangerous to try to carry his body out in the dark,
stayed at the campsite overnight, said Const. Michelle
COULOMBE
of the Sudbury detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police.
Members of the Ontario Provincial Police's Emergency Response
Team arrived in the early hours of the morning by boat, travelling
down Baie Fine inlet and then hiking into the site.
ROSSOKHATY's body was carried out by emergency workers yesterday
afternoon. That was about 21 hours after
ROSSOKHATY, his son
Alex, 19, and
SORTUNATOR took shelter in the tent around 5 p.m.
Tuesday during a violent thunderstorm.
SORTUNATOR and Alex
ROSSOKHATY scrambled out of the tent after
seeing lightning hit the ground nearby.
SORTUNATOR, apparently struck, felt a numbness travel down his
limbs, said Const.
COULOMBE.
"Then Alex realized that his father wasn't with them and when
they went back into the tent to look for him, he was lying on
the floor of the tent and wasn't moving," said
COULOMBE.
"It appears that the lightning had travelled through the ground."
Alex immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his father,
while SORTUNATOR, who is here on vacation, made the journey to
get help.
ROSSOKHATY's wife is on vacation in the family's homeland of
Ukraine, where
ROSSOKHATY, an assistant and associate professor
at Kyiv National University from 1990 until 2002, was recognized
by Ukraine's National Academy of Science in 1990 for his research
in graded semiconductors.
Nabil ESMAIL,
Dean of Concordia's department of electrical and
computer engineering, said
ROSSOKHATY was "extremely excited"
about joining the faculty in 2002 and learning about the culture
of Canada.
"Getting a position with Concordia was like winning the jackpot
for him," said
ESMAIL, who described
ROSSOKHATY as a "big strong
man" who loved his new life in Canada.
Colleagues were devastated by news of his death.
"He was very well liked, people here are crying and are having
a very difficult time taking it all in," said the university's
Sebastian VOYER.
COULOMBE said police believe that
ROSSOKHATY died from the lightning
strike, but are waiting for an autopsy scheduled for today before
making that the official cause of death.
According to the Ontario Weather Page, a website run by Fergus,
Ontario, "storm chaser" Dave
PATRICK, lightning kills about 16
people a year in Canada.
Tuesday's tragedy bore an eerie similarity to the August, 2003,
death of Lee
USHER, 41, of Toronto.
He was killed when lightning struck near a tent he was sharing
with his two sons near Parry Sound.
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