This was an article in the March 20,
1998 CALIFORNIA EXAMINER
Fire Authorities
in California found a corpse in a burnt out section of forest while assessing
the damage done by a forest fire.
The deceased male
was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with a dive tank, flippers, and
face mask. A post-mortem examination revealed that the person died
not from burns, but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided
a positive identification. Investigators then set about determining
how a fully clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire. |
It was revealed
that, on the day of the fire, the person went for a diving trip off the
coast-some 20 miles away from the forest. The firefighters, seeking
to control the fire as quickly as possible, called in a fleet of helicopters
with very large buckets. The buckets were dropped into the ocean
for rapid filling, then flown to the forest fire and emptied. You
guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific,
the next he was doing a breaststroke in a fire bucket 300 feet in the air.
Apparently, he extinguished exactly 5'10" of the fire. Some days it just
doesn't pay to get out of bed. |