Somersville Fire Entrapment Fatality 1943

In the early morning of August 22, 1943, Emile Corsi, one of 150 volunteer and professional firefighters mobilized to suppress the Somersville Fire in Contra Costa County, California, died when he was entrapped and burned. The fire was discovered at 1900 hours and burned through rolling hills of tall, dry grass and chaparral brush. Corsi, a ranch employee, worked to suppress the fire with a backpack pump until a wind shift swept the flames over him. He could not escape in time and his cotton clothing caught fire. Other nearby firefighters rolled Corsi on the ground and smothered the flames on his clothes. Nonetheless, he was severely burned and transported from the fireline to Antioch Hospital, where, two hours later, he died of his injuries. 

Entrapment, Fatality, Burn Injury, Hand Crews