Corpse in Forest Fire

Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned 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 scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and facemask. A
post-mortem revealed tthat the person died not from burns, but
from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a
positive identification. Investigators then set about to
determine 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 from
the forest. The fire fighters, seeking to control the fire as
quickly as possible, called in a fleet of helicopters with very
large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and 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 the breaststroke in a fire dip 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.


This article was taken from the California Examiner, March
20,1998