Fallen Tree Limb Kills 2 Minors In Yosemite National Park

Two children were killed early Friday morning when an oak tree limb fell on their tent in the Yosemite Valley, according to the National Park Service.

The campers, described only as under 18, were both dead when rangers arrived at the crowded Upper Pines Campground in response to 911 calls, Gediman said.

“By eliminating the fleas, we reduce the risk of human exposure and break the cycle of plague in rodents at the sites”, said Karen Smith, the director and state health officer for the California Department of Public Health.

In 2012, a Yosemite concession employee died when his tent cabin was hit by a falling limb.

The child and the family had recently gone camping at the Crane Flat Campground in Yosemite National Park.

A popular high country campground in Yosemite National Park will be shut down after a squirrel was found to have died with plague, the park has announced.

In an “extremely precautionary public health measure”, park officials will apply flea insecticide to rodent burrows. Fire restrictions are in effect for all park areas below 6,000 feet except for certain campgrounds and picnic areas.

Symptoms include a sudden fever, a severe headache, nausea and chills.

Never feed squirrels, chipmunks or other rodents and never touch sick or dead rodents. It can be treated and cured when antibiotics are given soon after infection, but it’s deadly when treatment is delayed.

In California, plague-infected animals are most likely to be found in the foothills and mountains and to a lesser extent, along the coast. The case was the first reported human diagnosis of plague in California since 2006.