A devastating weekend flash flood has claimed the lives of five members of a Utah family during a planned day of hiking in the state’s southern region, local law enforcement officials have confirmed. Among the deceased is Captain Spencer Long, a serving member of Provo Fire & Rescue, alongside his wife and their three young sons. The only surviving immediate family member is a daughter who chose not to participate in the outdoor excursion, leaving her as the sole survivor of the immediate household.
In an official statement, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the tragedy is linked to sudden floodwaters triggered by days of heavy regional rainfall. The agency did not release the identities of the victims publicly, leaving that confirmation to Provo Fire & Rescue, which formally announced Captain Long’s passing in a separate public message.
“The entire Provo Fire & Rescue community is absolutely heartbroken by the death of Captain Spencer Long and his entire family,” the department shared in its statement. “Our deepest thoughts and condolences are with his surviving family member, friends, and fellow colleagues as they navigate this unimaginably difficult time.”
Details of the victims’ full identities were further clarified through a verified GoFundMe fundraising page set up in the wake of the disaster, which confirmed the victims as Long, his wife Katrina, and their three sons: Reid, Thayne, and Gage. The fundraising page also noted that the surviving daughter “has had her life forever changed in an instant” by the sudden loss of her entire family.
According to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office timeline, the family arrived at a trailhead campground near the small town of Bicknell, Utah, to begin their day trip on Friday afternoon. Local emergency dispatch received the first report of a flood-related incident at the campground around 5:00 PM local time (23:00 GMT), where first responders recovered the body of a young male victim. As search and rescue teams combed the surrounding flood-prone terrain, they recovered two additional male victims later the same day. Search operations resumed at first light on Saturday to locate the two remaining missing family members, and by the end of the day, officials confirmed that the final two bodies had been recovered, bringing the total death toll to five.