A 32 year old veteran firefighter from Asheville has died, after falling 50 feet to his death.
The N.C. Division of Forest Resources is mourning the loss of 6 year firefighter Curtis Jessen. He was his division’s assistant district forester in Asheville, and suffered critical injuries after falling from the Big Bradley Falls near Saluda Thursday. He was on the mountain fighting a small brush fire in the morning, when the accident happened around 11 am.
The North Carolina Forest Service has requested that flags be lowered in honor of Jessen. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
“This is a very sad day for the entire Division of Forest Resources and all of our firefighting partners,” said Wib Owen, the director of the Division of Forest Resources. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Curtis and his family.”
Jessen began working with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources in February 2002. Since that time he has worked as a forest inventory analysis forester and a service forester before being promoted to assistant district forester.
Rescue crews spent nearly 7 hours trying to get Jessen to safety.
"We had about 25 men on the mountain," one rescue crew told us. "It was a rocky cliff, we had teams throughout the area to haul him up, kicking rocks loose, we had to watch out for other firefighters being injured."
A forestry official said, "We'd much rather put out fires than participate in rescues."
North Carolina has had nine wildfire-related deaths since 1960, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
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