Beverly WWII veteran dies from burns

Beverly WWII veteran dies from burns

06 April 2011

published by www.boston.com


USA — An 83-year-old Beverly man has died after suffering severe burns when his kilt caught fire while he was burning leaves and brush in his yard last week.

Arthur Ciampa’s 19-year-old neighbor, Evan Smith, rushed to his aid on Thursday after hearing screams next door, Beverly police said.

Smith found Ciampa rolling on the ground, fully engulfed in flames. Smith put the fire out with his jacket. Ciampa survived with second- and third-degree burns covering about 70 percent of his body, from the knees up.

Beverly police and fire officials responded to the report of a “man on fire” at Ciampa’s Woodbury Street home at about 5 that evening, a statement from the Fire Department said.

“His burn injuries were very traumatic,” Deputy Fire Chief Peter O’Connor said in a telephone interview Friday morning. “They were very serious burns”

A Medflight helicopter rescue officials requested was unattainable due to snowy weather that day, a statement from the Beverly Police Department statement said.

Ciampa was rushed to Beverly Hospital by ambulance, and later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said Beverly Police Officer David Costa. Ciampa died on Monday.

Ciampa, a dentist and World War II Navy veteran, was described by his family in an obituary as a “faithful friend and neighbor to many,” whose first priority was always his family.

The graduate of Boston College and Tufts University School of Dental Medicine also had a dry sense of humor and “loved sharing puns and wordplay,” the obituary said.


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