ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (AP) — A New York City firefighter was killed when a tree branch fell on the vehicle he was driving at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, officials said.
The member fell on a road Friday at the entrance to the estate amid high winds and struck a guest’s vehicle, Biltmore spokeswoman Marissa Jamison said in an email.
Buncombe County Emergency Medical Services and Asheville Fire Department responded with assistance from Biltmore crews. Three adults and a child were in the vehicle, and the injuries to one adult were fatal, Jamison said. An investigation is underway, she said.
Asheville Fire Department spokesman Kelley Klope said the driver died before firefighters arrived, the Citizen Times reported.
Casey Skudin would have turned 46 on Sunday, New York Fire Department spokesman Jim Long told the newspaper.
Skudin had 16 years of service and worked in the Rockaway area of Queens with Ladder 137, Long said. Skudin was married to Angela Skudin and had two children, he said.
Skudin was also a surfer and lifeguard and was awarded the Association of Fire Chiefs Memorial Medal in 2010 for his bravery in diving into the freezing ocean during a storm in 2009 to help rescue a surfer stuck under the water by his surfboard leash, Long said.
The 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate offers tours of the nation’s largest private residence, Biltmore House, which was built in 1895 and attracts around 1.4 million people a year.
The Associated Press
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