Bravest killed by tree limb while on N.C. vacation
A veteran FDNY firefighter honored for multiple rescues in the Rockaways died in North Carolina after a heavy tree limb crashed onto his SUV amid a family trip to celebrate his birthday and Father’s Day, relatives and officials said Saturday.
Firefighter Casey Skudin, 45, was driving through Asheville on Friday afternoon when heavy winds snapped the limb that then fell across the roof of his SUV, fatally injuring him, his wife, Angela Skudin, posted on Instagram.
Skudin’s family was on the second day of their vacation to celebrate Father’s Day and Skudin’s June 19 birthday, his wife said.
“Our entire family was involved in a freak accident in Asheville, NC,” she wrote. “Our youngest has been hospitalized with mild injuries ... our oldest son Ben & myself made it out with only a few scratches.
“Please hug your loved ones because I can guarantee you all that nothing is guaranteed,” she wrote.
Skudin (ineet), a 16-year veteran of the FDNY, was a longtime member of Ladder 137 on Beach 116th St. in the Rockaways in Queens.
The Long Beach, L.I., resident was “a multiple FDNY Medal recipient for his work in water rescues and helping Rockaways neighbors out during Hurricane Sandy,” the Rockaway Times noted on Facebook.
The family’s SUV was nearing the Biltmore Estate, the hotel they were staying at as they visited the Blue Ridge Mountains, when the tree limb crushed their SUV.
“During a weather event involving high winds, a tree fell across a road on the estate entrance and struck a guest vehicle,” Biltmore spokeswoman Marissa Jamison said. “Three adults and one child were in the car and were transported to Mission Hospital. The accident resulted in fatal injuries to one adult. An investigation is underway.”
Angela Sudkin, who owns a gift shop in Long Beach called the Codfish Cowboy, posted photos of her family taking in the mountain views just before the accident and images of her crushed vehicle.
She also went back to the scene of the accident, where she took a video of the tree from which the limb snapped.
“I had to go back and see it for myself,” she wrote on the video that panned up and down the tree. “The tree that destroyed my family.”