Rocky Canyon Fire Fatality 1931

Thomas Gregerson, a firefighter employed to fight a large fire near Atascadero, California, for the US Forest Service, Santa Barbara National Forest (now the Los Padres NF), perished from burn injuries on August 28, 1931. It is believed he suffered a medical emergency, related either to smoke exposure or exertion. Gregerson was a little distance from other firefighters in the early morning of August 28, and his fellow crew members did not notice him collapse. He lay unconscious in short grass and his clothes caught fire. He was discovered semi-conscious and very badly burned, and was transported to the hospital in Atascadero, where he died a few hours later. The Forest Supervisor of the Santa Barbara National Forest reported that the fire that killed Gregerson was lit by a private landowner as a back fire to protect their property from the main fire, which was actually mostly contained at the time of the accident. 

Medical or Exertion or Heat, Fatality, Burn Injury, Hand Crews