Incident Name: Sweetwater Canyon
Date: Incident date: 6/22/1943; death date: 6/24/1943
Personnel: Ralph Morton
Age: 15 ?
Agency/Organization: CDF (now CAL FIRE)
Position: (pickup) firefighter
Summary: On June 22, 1943, Ralph Morton suffered fatal burns battling a brush fire in Sweetwater Canyon, CA. He died on June 24. Apparently, he was 15 years old. In 1944 some high school athletes were allowed to obtain seasonal jobs with their county forestry department due to the manpower shortage caused by World War II. Participants were ususlly required to be at least 16 years old. How 15 year old Morton got the job is unknown.
Maps
General Incident Location, Sweetwater Canyon, Monterey CA
{mosmap lat=’36.189791’|lon=’-121.084253’|marker=’0’|text=’Sweetwater Canyon’}
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
- From the LLC database: consistent with LODD of Ralph Morton
- Date: 1/1/1943
- Location: Monterey
- State: California
- Incident: Sweetwater Canyon
- Accident: Burn injyry
- Category: Fire
- Organization: State
- Agency: CDF
- Number of People: 1
- Shelters Available: Not Applicable
- Shelters Deployed: Not Applicable
- Fatalities: 1
- Injuries: Not Applicable
- California Death Index
- Name: Ralph Morton
- Event Type: Death
- Event Date: 23 Jun 1943
- Event Place: Monterey, California, United States
- Birth Date: 13 Dec 1928
- Birthplace: Oklahoma
- Gender: Male
- Father’s Name: Morton
- Mother’s Name: Hogge
Wildlandfire.com Links:
General Incident Location, Sweetwater Canyon, Monterey CA
{mosmap lat=’36.189791’|lon=’-121.084253’|marker=’0’|text=’Sweetwater Canyon’}
Media Articles and Reports
Photos, Videos, & Tributes
- Find a Grave: Ralph Morton
Contributors to this article: Mellie
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