An Oakland firefighter drowned early Thursday morning while swimming in the ocean off a San Diego beach, fire officials said.
Firefighter-paramedic Caeden Laffan drowned while swimming at Pacific Beach north of Mission Bay. The Oakland Fire Department said the details of what happened are still under investigation.
Oakland Fire Department
San Diego Fire-Rescue reported that Laffan’s body was found washed up on the north side of Crystal Pier after a team searched the area with a rescue boat and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter.
KSND San Diego reported that family members and friends of the victim, including other Oakland firefighters, were on scene during the search and were also present when his body was found.
KFMB
The Oakland Fire Department said Laffan was 25 and a five-year veteran of the department. He graduated from the Recruit Academy Class of 2019.
“It’s a tremendous loss that we’re still grappling with and trying to wrap our arms around,” Fire Chief Damon Covington said at a news conference Thursday. “Anytime we lose a member of our family. Caeden was a rising star, a very sharp individual. We had big plans for him, for his future, so it’s extremely tragic.”
Laffan’s father, Sean Laffan, was interim assistant chief of the Oakland Fire Department when he suffered a heart attack at the fire department’s Frank Ogawa Plaza headquarters and died in 2020 at age 42. Caeden Laffan’s brother, Cooper, is a recruit for the Oakland Fire Department, and his mother, Sabrina Laffan, is an outreach specialist for the fire department.
“We’re really going to reach out and support our membership, but we’re also really going to support the Laffan family,” Covington said. “They’ve suffered such a great loss, you know, it’s almost incomprehensible how much loss you can actually suffer and still be standing. So we’re going to support them in any way we can.”
Covington said Laffan was in San Diego for the Summer Olympics Fire Department. The fire chief said he and Chief of Staff Michael Hunt would fly to San Diego later Thursday to arrange for Laffan’s body to be transported back to Oakland “in the most dignified manner that we can.”
