Salt Lake City fire Capt. Michael Harp, 54, died Thursday in a rafting accident on the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, officials said. (Salt Lake City Fire Department)
A Utah man who died in a rafting accident at Dinosaur National Monument Recognized as a 27-year veteran of the Salt Lake City Fire Department in Colorado.
Michael Harp, 54, was part of the group taking private permission Rafting trip The U.S. National Park Service said their boat ran aground on a rock in a rapid known as Hell’s Half Mile below the Green River in Lodore Valley around 4 p.m. Thursday.
Monument personnel responded to a rafting accident and learned that Harp was missing and believed to be pinned under the raft. The rafting group pulled the boat off the cliff, but officials said Harp was unresponsive and “swept downriver.”
According to the NPS, Harp was wearing a life jacket but had lost it by the time the group unpinned the boat.
Harp was part of a rafting group taking a private permit trip on the Green River when the raft got stuck on a rock. It was believed that the harp was pinned under the raft. (National Park Service/Dan Johnson)
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River Patrol Rangers launched a search for Harp. Around 7:45 a.m. Friday, Harp’s body was found about 10 miles downriver by guides from the commercial rafting company Adrift.
His mortal remains were airlifted Moffat County No further details about Harp’s death were immediately available to the coroner.
Veena, from Sandy, Utah, was a second-generation firefighter who served as a fire captain in the Salt Lake City Fire Department, the department wrote in a social media post Saturday.
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He was a 27-year veteran of the department following in his father’s footsteps and especially Ground zero after 9/11, According to the section.
Harp, pictured with other firefighters, was especially stationed at Ground Zero in New York City after 9/11, the fire department said. (Salt Lake City Fire Department)
“Captain Michael Harp dedicated his life to serving not only the citizens of Salt Lake City, but his fellow firefighters,” the department wrote. “His legacy of service, leadership, compassion and infectious laugh will be forever remembered by those who knew him.”
Dinosaur National Monument spans 210,000 acres in Colorado and Utah. Although best known for a mine containing preserved dinosaur remains, whitewater rafters from around the world are drawn to the monument’s Green and Yampa rivers that cut through its famous canyons.
During the days surrounding the accident, the NPS said flow rates for the canyon in the Lodore section of the Green River averaged 4,700 cubic feet per second.
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