25-year-old firefighter with ‘bright future’ dies swimming off CA coast, officials say
.jpeg "An off-duty firefighter was found dead along the shoreline after going for an ocean swim off the Southern California coast, officials say.")
An off-duty firefighter was found dead along the shoreline after going for an ocean swim off the Southern California coast, officials say.
Caeden Laffan, 25, of Sacramento, was with friends when he went for a swim at Pacific Beach in the early morning hours of June 27, the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a news release.
About 30 minutes later, a friend contacted authorities to say they could not see Laffan in the ocean, the office said.
San Diego police told KUSI-TV they got a 911 call about a missing swimmer shortly before 2 a.m.
Friends and lifeguards searched the area, the medical examiner’s office said.
Two hours later, lifeguards found him on the shoreline north of Crystal Pier, and he was pronounced dead at 4:17 a.m, according to the office.
Laffan, a firefighter-paramedic with the Oakland Fire Department, was in town for the California Firefighter Summer Games, KUSI-TV reported.
Fire Chief Damon Covington said Laffan was “a young enthusiastic member of the Oakland Fire Department, with a bright future ahead of him,” according to a news release from the department.
“We’re all heartbroken today after learning of this tragic event,” Covington said, per the release.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao echoed the sentiment in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“My heart goes out to the Laffan family as I join them, our Oakland Fire Department, and our city in grieving the loss of an exemplary young man who helped keep our communities safe,” Thao wrote.
Laffan’s father, Sean Laffan who was the city’s assistant fire chief, died at the age of 42 while on duty in November 2020, according to the department.
Five months later, Laffan was promoted to the rank of firefighter paramedic, according to a fire department post on X.
“This breaks my heart. Words don’t express the pain that we are all feeling over the loss of Caeden Laffan,” Covington wrote on Facebook. “Truly a special young man gone way too soon.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2024 at 12:13 PM with the headline "25-year-old firefighter with ‘bright future’ dies swimming off CA coast, officials say."
