BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A volunteer firefighter collapsed and died shortly after saving an injured hiker Wednesday.
Several news agencies reported that 67-year-old Richard Marchman, with the Indian Peaks Fire Department, rescued a female hiker who broke her ankle more than two miles from the trailhead. She was airlifted to a hospital.
As rescuers were descending the trailhead, firefighter Marchman collapsed about one mile up from the parking lot, according to the report.
Emergency personnel began performing CPR, but he was unresponsive and was eventually pronounced dead by a paramedic.
“He was a full-time resident of the area and responded on a lot of calls,” Sheriff Joe Pelle wrote in an email. “He was well-known and well-liked by the fire, EMS and law enforcement community in the mountains. And he was a real character.”
The cause and manner of his death continue to be investigated by the Coroner’s Office.