One killed in training accident

A smoke jumper from the Bureau of Land Management was reportedly killed in an accident Friday afternoon.

Mark T. Urban, 40, was killed while conducting a proficiency jump near the airport in Prairie.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Urban had served as a smokejumper with the BLM for 10 years, said Ken Frederick, a spokesman with the BLM's National Interagency Fire Center.

Accidents of this kind are rare, according to Frederick. The last happened in 2000 involving a smokejumper conducting a preseason jump near Fairbanks, Alaska.