A 1-year-old boy died and his parents were severely burned while fleeing the Cold Springs fire in Okanogan County.
The family’s abandoned and wrecked car was found Tuesday afternoon and had been burnt, according to the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office. On Wednesday morning, search-and-rescue crews found the family along the riverbank of the Columbia River; the man, 31, and woman, 26, had third-degree burns and their son was dead. The family is from Renton, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The man and woman were taken to Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster and then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. They were in critical condition at the hospital Wednesday afternoon, according to spokesperson Susan Gregg.
The Sheriff’s Office did not provide details on the boy’s cause of death.
The Cold Springs fire, south of Omak, has burned 163,000 acres and its fire behavior remains extreme.
Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said that her “heart breaks for the family of the child who perished in the Cold Springs fire … The pain that family is going through is unfathomable.”
Correction: This post previously included an incorrect age for the man who was injured. He is 31.