The chief of the San Francisco Fire Department is remembering a firefighter who died during a training exercise Wednesday.
Jason Cortez, 42, died during a routine drill, although officials have not released more information about the accident. It is still under investigation.
"We have to train, and we train just like we would go to work at a fire. And I’m unable to say anything else about the accident other than it was tragic. Absolutely tragic," said chief Janine Nicholson. "And we are all heartbroken. I’m also heartbroken for the folks who were there with him."
Nicholson ran calls with Cortez herself.
"Always a straight up guy. Hardworking, kind, just - if I could clone him, I would. Just a wonderful human being."
As a veteran of the department, Cortez was well-known and liked in the community, and as such it fell on his friends to try to save his life, both at the scene and San Francisco General Hospital where he was transported and pronounced dead.
"He had friends here at San Francisco General as well, where he was brought today - who loved him, who knew him from when he transported patients here on the ambulance," said Nicholson. "Who knows many people’s lives he saved, how many people’s lives he changed."
Cortez, the son of a retired SFFD firefighter, leaves behind a wife and two kids.