COQUILLE — A 21-year-old U.S. Forest Service firefighter from Colorado working in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest died Friday after a pickup truck they were in left the road near Powers in Coos County.
The U.S. Forest Service identified the firefighter as Benjamin C. Sapper of Boulder, Colo. The agency said in a news release Sapper was a first-year hand crew member with the Gold Beach Ranger District.
Coquille Fire & Rescue said a truck with Forest Service firefighters left the road above Powers. It was not immediately clear what caused the truck to leave the road or how many others were in it. The Forest Service described the incident as an “on-duty vehicle accident.”
“This is a devastating loss of one of our own Gold Beach firefighters,” Gold Beach District Ranger Kailey Guerrant said in a news release. “We have a tight knit community on the Gold Beach and Powers ranger districts, and we stand together in grief and support for his family, friends, and fellow firefighters during this heartbreaking time.”
The Forest Service said Sapper graduated from the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and was also a graduate of Boulder High School.
