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The AFU and Urban Legend Archive Death scuba forest fire
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The AFU and Urban Legend Archive Death scuba forest fire
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From: <bkehrer@abq.com>
Date: Thu, 9 May 96 10:16:30 -0600
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: A Chestnut Sighting!
[lotsa forwarding headers snipped--ehk]
{name deleted}
If you think your day is bad...
Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burnt out section of forest whilst assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wetsuit, 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 kilometers 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 300m in the air. Apparently, he extinguished exactly 1.78m (5'10") of the fire.
Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.
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From: Lesli <lesli@bfbbs.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: A Chestnut Sighting!
Date: 10 May 1996 15:05:51 GMT
On May 6th, vargish@tanelorn.ser.bbnplanet.com shared the following, which I posted again on May 9th, blissfully unaware that it was an oldie:
> Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burnt out section
> of forest whilst assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The
> deceased male was dressed in a full wetsuit, complete with a dive
> tank,flippers and face mask.
Here's the same story, French version:
"Response to a wildfire on the south of France's Cote d'Azur was billed as a marvel of modern fire-fighting technology. Two specially-built flying boats zoomed in, skimmed the waters of the Mediterranean, scooping vast amounts of water into their belly tanks, and then dropped the water on the hillside fire. All was jolly until a body was found in the ashes."
"The coroner found that the gentleman had apparently fallen from a great height, suffering serious injuries before being burned to death. The report further noted that the victim was wearing a bathing suit, snorkel, and swim fins."
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And now some comments on its recent mutations as witnessed in AFU:
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 12:24:38 EDT
From: Will Wheeler <WJW2@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Unique Firefighting Methods
In article <4muhdf$klp@panix2.panix.com>, mtepper@panix.com (Michele Tepper) says:
>[story of Phil's tragic demise snipped]
>Older Hats: I notice that Lesli's version is set in California, whereas
>the only version with a locale that JHB cites is set in Australia. Is
>the Cali version the American twist on the tale? Has it been reported
>from elsewhere?
It's come up several times recently, and has been posted at least two other times (since you're a grad student, I will forgive you the transgression of not reading every article in AFU). The distinguishing characteristics of this version are that it's in California and the scuba diver extinguishes 5' 10" (or whatever of fire). I don't recall seeing it before this month, since then I've seen it a lot.
Will "I'm expecting it over email from my Mom any day now" Wheeler
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From: ekelly@acpub.duke.edu (Emily Kelly)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Unique Firefighting Methods
Date: 10 May 1996 21:12:29 -0400
Will Wheeler <WJW2@psuvm.psu.edu> wrote:
>tepper@panix.com (Michele Tepper) says:
>
>>[story of Phil's tragic demise snipped]
>
>>Older Hats: I notice that Lesli's version is set in California, whereas
>>the only version with a locale that JHB cites is set in Australia. Is
>>the Cali version the American twist on the tale? Has it been reported
>>from elsewhere?
>
>It's come up several times recently, and has been posted at least two
>other times
The March 29th AFU posting of the UL sets it in the south of France. On April 11th, someone posted the UL from a hand-me-down "Newspaper Clip"; that's the same version Lesli just quoted in the current "Chestnut" thread, and which was also quoted in a _News Tribune_ article on ULs that snopes reprinted on April 18th: it begins, "Response to a wildfire in the south of France's Cote d'Azur..." On 4/27 Terry Carroll reported that the (San Francisco Bay area) KRON local news had just aired the UL in their odd-buttrue segment, attributing it to Reuters and also setting it in France. Back in late January, someone posted the UL, saying it happened "in Spain or Portugal - somewhere near the Meditteranean Sea".
The only other non-Mediterranean version I remember seeing recently was posted to AFU on 4/2, and places the UL in British Columbia, with the canonical explanation that poor old Phil had been diving "in a lake" when the untimely scooping took place. I don't recall seeing the California version before this latest outbreak.
>transgression of not reading every article in AFU). The distinguishing
>characteristics of this version are that it's in California and the
>scuba diver extinguishes 5' 10" (or whatever of fire). I don't recall
>seeing it before this month, since then I've seen it a lot.
This version, or the vigorous reincarnation of the story in general? What I want to know is why now? The Opus story took off from the forensics meeting, and the past year's Mr. Gorsky rush was no doubt spurred by _Apollo 13_ and the resultant media attention on the moon missions. Neiman-Marcus and Craig Shergold never die. But the scuba diver/forest fire story has been dead in the water, ahem, so to speak, for over two years now. I don't think I'd ever seen it on AFU before this spring's sudden rash of sightings, and I've been reading reliably since the spring of 1994. What gives?
Emily "I *<heart>* Deja News" Kelly
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