UPDATE: AFD’s Capt. Jeffrey Bowen fatally injured in Biltmore Ave. fire

UPDATE: Asheville Fire Department’s Capt. Jeffrey Bowen, a 13-year veteran of the department, died today, July 28, after battling a blaze at 445 Biltmore Ave. Another firefighter, Jay Bettencourt, was taken to Augusta, Ga., for treatment. According to information released at a 5 p.m. press conference, the building was older and not required to have a sprinkler system. Bettencourt and Bowen were working as a team in the incident, and six other firefighters were also injured.


Photo by Katy Brooks

Asheville City Council tackles a full agenda (initial Twitter coverage of Jan. 12 meeting)

Council had a full agenda, including a request by Mission Hospitals to add a five-story outpatient facility, consideration of an innovative plan to help citizens make Asheville more energy independent, a plea to run drinking-water lines to homes near the former CTS plant, and a request to amend the Glen Rock conditional use permit.

On birth and becoming

It’s spring again in the mountains, and my daughter, Karoline Lucinda Johnson, is almost 1 year old. It’s hard to believe. She came in the month of May, when the mountain laurel was blooming. People tried to tell me how profoundly giving birth would change my life, but I could never have fathomed the incredible […]