State agency investigating technician’s fatal fall off cell phone tower

Published 5:16 am Wednesday, September 17, 2008

PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating the fatal fall of a cell phone technician atop the Elks Naval Lodge building.

Jeremy Combs, 33, of Bonney Lake was working late Friday on a cell phone tower atop the five-story building with two co-workers, said Port Angeles Sgt. Jack Lowell on Tuesday.

Combs fell about 40 feet to the roof, Lowell said.

Port Angeles police received the emergency call at 12:01 a.m. Friday, and Combs was still alive when paramedics and police officers arrived, Lowell said.

He was pronounced dead at Olympic Medical Center at 1:43 a.m., he said.

Lowell said Combs was employed by Emerald Wireless in Buckley.

According to an online obituary posted by Yahn & Son Funeral Home in Auburn, Combs was working as a foreman of a cellular tower construction crew, and had been working in that profession since 1997.

He is survived by his wife and two children.