High school student, 15, dies in 50-foot fall at Gas Works Park

A Ballard High School student who was climbing on a structure within a fenced-off area at Seattle's Gas Works Park on Thursday night died after falling from a 50-foot platform.

Mattheis Johnson, 15, was attending an outdoor pop-up concert" at the park when he accidentally fell, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser created for his family. The teen's family, through a GoFundMe spokesperson, declined an interview.

The Seattle Fire Department responded to the park at 10:20 p.m. and took Johnson to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries, according to spokesperson David Cuerpo.

Johnson is at least the third person since 2012 to die after climbing one of the structures at the 19-acre park, which was once the site of a major coal gasification plant on the northern shoreline of Lake Union.

Lucas Voss-Kernan, a 19-year-old from Massachusetts who was visiting Seattle on a road trip in May 2012, died after falling from a fuel tank at the park, The Boston Globe reported at the time. Zoe Jelinek, 20, of Seattle, died after falling about 50 feet from the park's main tower in 2022, according to the Seattle Police Department and an obituary.

Others have been hurt in similar falls at the park, including a 22-year-old man in 2008 and a 19-year-old man in 2013, according to Seattle police.

Seattle Parks and Recreation announced in May 2023 that it was replacing the fencing and gates around the park's towers to make it harder for people to access them because "they are not safe to climb on." The agency also said it would put in place "enhanced enforcement and monitoring measures" after the new fencing was installed, but did not describe what that entailed.

In an email Tuesday, Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesperson Christina Hirsch said the agency is "deeply heartbroken by the loss of a young life in one of our city parks."

"We want to stress to the general public that no one is allowed to enter any restricted areas at Gas Works to prevent any further tragic accidents and no one is allowed to or should ever attempt to climb any tower at Gas Works Park," Hirsch wrote.

Seattle Parks and Recreation said it frequently inspects the "enhanced fencing" it installed at the park in 2023, though Hirsch did not say how often. The agency also removed parts of the Gas Works structure at the time to prevent people from climbing there. Seattle Parks and Recreation is now looking into how the restricted area was accessed last week, and what the agency can do to "to prevent these types of tragedies" from happening again, she said.

In an email to Ballard High School students and their families on Saturday, school principal Abby Hunt said Johnson's death came as "an unexpected shock to all those who knew him." The teen participated in Ultimate Frisbee, concert choir, garment club, and track and field, the email said.

"Mattheis will be deeply missed here at Ballard," Hunt wrote. "I am confident our school community will come together to support one another.

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