KateSpot

OCEAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. - An 8-year-old girl was killed and three others injured Wednesday when an oak tree crashed down on them while they were learning about first aid at a Boy Scout camp, authorities said.

The girls were participating in a class being taught as part of an overnight camp when the 31-foot tree suddenly snapped, falling on the picnic table at which they were sitting, Police Chief Kenneth Flatt said.

The tree broke about three feet from its base and crashed through a tarp over the picnic table, landing on the girl's head. She was pronounced dead at Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin.

The other girls - ages 9, 10 and 16 - suffered minor injuries. Their identities weren't immediately released. One girl suffered a broken ankle; the others had bruises and scrapes.

A counselor who heard the tree crack before it fell yelled to the youths, but they couldn't get out of the way, Flatt said. The point of impact was about 10 feet from the top of the tree, he said.

"It was an accident. There was no warning. There wasn't a whole lot anybody could do," said Flatt.

The girls were among a group of 17 children from a northern New Jersey group called the Resident Camp Association. They were on a weeklong "Learning For Life" program at the heavily wooded, 600-acre Joseph A. Citta Scout Reservation, according to Ethan Draddy, an executive with the Jersey Shore Council of Boy Scouts of America, in Toms River.

He did not know what community the group was from.

"Learning For Life" is a Boy Scout-developed program that aims to build children's confidence and values.

There were seven counselors on the scene at the time, and one who had been teaching the 45-minute first aid class administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the girl, to no avail. Police arrived about six minutes after the 11:59 a.m. call, Flatt said.

The camp undergoes a safety inspection that includes forestry at least twice a year, but it wasn't clear whether the tree was part of that inspection, he said. It had rained overnight but there had been no lightning reported, Flatt said.

"There are a number of reasons that tree could've fell down. I'm not going to address them," said Flatt.

The group had arrived Sunday and was to stay until Friday, Draddy said.

"We are feeling completely and utterly devastated," he said.

The death was the latest in series of tragedies to strike scouting-related activities this summer.

Four adult Boy Scout leaders were killed in a July electrical accident in Bowling Green, Va. Five other people have died this summer from drowning and lightning during Scout outings in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and California.