Chatsworth Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1936

A large group of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) firefighters were mobilized from Bass River Camp 225 in Tuckerton, New Jersey to fight a fire in the pine barrens. A firing operation on one stretch of line experienced a wind shift and entrapped a large group of firefighters, who attempted an escape in multiple trucks. While a large group escaped the area, another truck crashed in the heavy smoke of the fire run and the occupants were burned over. Five firefighters with this truck suffered severe burn injuries and died either at the scene or shortly thereafter. A further eight firefighters were injured and hospitalized in this entrapment. 

Those lost on the Chatsworth Fire were: three CCC crewmembers, Stanley Carr, John LaSalle, and Edward Sullivan; State Forest Ranger Ira Morey; and Whitesville Fire Department firefighter Kingsley White.

Entrapment, Fatality, Burn Injury, Hand Crews, Firing