PORT ANGELES — Grief counselors in Sequim and Port Angeles were on hand Wednesday to tend to classmates of two 16-year-old boys who were apparently killed Tuesday by carbon monoxide fumes from an unvented gas-powered electric generator.
The two boys, Mike Harding and Steven A. Gallauher, both 16, were found dead in a detached garage on the 600 block of John Jacobs Road at about 12:15 p.m.
Harding attended school in Sequim and Gallauher attended school in Port Angeles.
An initial investigation by Clallam County sheriff deputies found that the two had entered the garage to refuel the generator and were overcome by the colorless, odorless and deadly carbon monoxide fumes.
The unincorporated area between Sequim and Port Angeles had been without power since Sunday afternoon following a snowstorm.
The investigation is still underway, Clallam County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Borte said, and noted that investigators hoped to get autopsy results back as soon as possible.
He said the initial call that the boys had been found was routed to Fire District No. 3, who then called sheriff’s deputies at about 12:15 p.m.
The boys were found by one of their fathers, Borte said, who reported to investigators that he had last seen the boys at about midnight the evening before.
“He just assumed they were out and about,” Borte said.
Confirmation of the boys’ names was not forthcoming from the Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday, a day after the boys died and after their families had been notified.
Prosecuting Attorney Deborah Kelly, who is also the county’s coroner, confirmed that the two dead youths were Harding and Gallauher.
The deputy prosecutor assigned to serve as coroner on the case was, and is, on vacation.
Kelly said she could confirm the names and that an autopsy had been scheduled for this week, but she didn’t know what day.
Fire District No. 3 Chief Steve Vogel declined to name the boys, as did Borte.
A man who answered the phone at the residence where the boys were found hung up on the Peninsula Daily News reporter calling to verify what had happened.
And although Port Angeles High School provided grief counselors to students, Principal Scott Harker said Wednesday afternoon he still had not received official confirmation of the dead student’s name.
Because Harker had not heard officially, he had to consider his information a “rumor.”
“Until I get official notification, it’s a little awkward,” he said.
However, he said a total of seven grief counselors were available at the high school Wednesday, and that a “steady stream” of students was visiting them.
At Sequim, district spokeswoman Annette Hanson said a “regional response counseling team” was tending to students, but would not confirm the age or grade of the student.
Hanson said the student that died was “high school aged,” but she also wouldn’t say if he attended Sequim High School or the district’s community school.
She also wouldn’t identify the student or his grade level, saying that they relied on the Sheriff’s Office or the family to identify the deceased boys.
Borte, with the Sheriff’s Department, said it would not release the names because they had been juveniles.
He referred questions to the school district, which either weren’t sure or would not say.