Lake Jocassee Injury

At 3:44pm Friday afternoon, Oconee County Fire and Rescue personnel were dispatched to Devil’s Fork State Park on Lake Jocassee for a possible drowning. Oconee County Fire Chief Charlie King reports that dispatch received multiple calls of an individual who was injured while diving. Crews arrived to at the park to find bystanders providing treatment to a male who had been brought to sore by boat. Medical personnel continued treatments on scene and requested transport via GHS MedTrans helicopter to Greenville Memorial Hospital. Bystanders and friends in the area stated the male was attempting to jump from a cliff into the water when he was injured from the fall. The height of the jump is estimated at 80 feet. Upon hitting the water the man didn’t resurface. A local dive shop was in the immediate area with a SCUBA program and witnessed the incident. Upon noticing the man not resurfacing, the owner of the local dive shop entered the water and recovered the male in just over 30’ of water. These bystanders then loaded the male into the boat and administered CPR as they crossed the lake to awaiting responders at the state park. The cliff that the male jumped from is located in on the Pickens County side of Lake Jocassee. The agencies operating during the incident were the Salem Fire and Rescue, Oconee County Dive Team, Greenville Hospital/Oconee EMS, Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.