Scuba Diver in the Tree
This urban legend has been told since the mid-1980s in the United States, Australia, and in Europe. In fact, in Peter Mayle’s book A Year in Provence (1989), a character comments, “Every time there’s a fire someone starts a rumor like that.” Here is the story that has been circulating around the Internet as a news account:
“Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burnt 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 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…On the day of the fire, the person went for a diving trip off the coast-some 20 miles 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.”
This urban legend is false. Check out Snope’s article Dead Scuba Diver in Tree for more information.
(Source: Brunvand, Jan H. Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. 2001.)
