Bellingham Recalls Ten-Year Anniversary of Young Fly Fisher's Death

June 7, 2009 By: Marshall Cutchin

A gas pipeline break that caused the death of three youths enjoying Whatcom Creek in June, 1999 reminds residents that awareness of the potential for tragedy isn’t always enough. “The utterly random nature of the deaths of the three young people in a beloved city park added to the horror: two 10-year-old boys playing in the creek, burned to death but lingering for a day in a Seattle hospital; a teenaged fly-fishing enthusiast, pursuing his quarry in the creek’s shady pools and eddies, overcome by gasoline vapors and drowning in the place he loved.” John Stark in the Bellingham Herald.