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1-year-old boy killed in Washington wildfire, parents severely burnt while evacuating Okanogan weekend property

The Hyland family’s burnt and empty vehicle was found, while the couple with their toddler was discovered on the bank of the Columbia River in Okanogan County, officials said

OKANOGAN, WASHINGTON: A one-year-old child has died while his parents suffered serious burns after they attempted to flee a raging wildfire in Washington, authorities said. Jake and Jamie Hyland of Renton, Washington, along with their son Uriel were at a weekend getaway on their property in Okanogan when the tragedy happened.

On Tuesday, September 8, the family’s burnt and empty vehicle was found, while the couple with their toddler was discovered on Wednesday morning, September 10, on the bank of the Columbia River in Okanogan County, officials said. All of them had suffered serious burns, but the child did not make through and had died before search-and-rescue teams located him. "It's absolutely devastating and heartbreaking," Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley told ABC News.

Hawley added that 31-year-old Jake along with his 26-year-old wife and the kid was trying to escape the area because of the Cold Springs Fire, one of the many wildfires that erupted over the Labor Day weekend. He said that the sheriff’s office was informed Tuesday afternoon about finding the missing family whose unoccupied burned vehicle was located. The Hylands have spoken to their families last on Sunday, September 6.

According to the sheriff, all the three were first taken to Bridgeport State Park by boat, after which they were shifted to Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster, Washington. But later, husband and wife were separately taken to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center Wednesday afternoon so that they could receive treatment for their third-degree burns.

A GoFundMe page created by the extended family said, “Jake will need surgery on his arms since they are the most burned part of him. His chest and face also have patches of burns but we will not know until he is cleaned up. Internally he looks fine, they have his lung inflated. Jamie has more burns on her body, and we are waiting on the scans for her. Her burns mostly consist of her upper body. Her arms already had the surgery they will be doing on Jake to help relieve the tension from the burns. They are both still critical at this point, but Jamie is more so than Jake.”

It added: “Jamie's body is at 40-50% burned and Jake is at 25%, according to the doctor. We have increased the GoFundMe amount knowing that they are going to need the resources during this recovery process.”

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the authorities are investigating the toddler's death cause and also the reason behind the fire that has engulfed over 64,000 acres. "My heart breaks for the family of the child who perished in the Cold Springs fire. I am devastated. The pain that family is going through is unfathomable,” Hilary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands for the Washington state Department of Natural Resources, said.

Franz added: “My team at DNR and the firefighting community all across Washington will continue working as hard as we can to protect lives and communities. But I need every single resident of Washington to care about this. Not just today, but tomorrow, and every day until we have the resources to protect our communities and protect our firefighters.”