Burning Man’s 40th anniversary celebration closed on a somber note this year, with three attendees dying during or in connection with the weeklong event at Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The festival, themed Axis Mundi and running August 30 through September 7, typically sees around one death annually according to organizers and local authorities — making three fatalities in a single week an unusually high toll for the event.
The first death came on September 3, when Sampson Tshombe, a man in his mid-50s, suffered a serious medical emergency on a festival street. Responders performed CPR on-site before transporting him to Rampart, Burning Man’s on-site medical facility, where he was pronounced dead. Two days later, on September 5, 60-year-old Craigh Mann was found unresponsive by campmates inside the trailer he was sharing with his significant other. Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said foul play was not suspected in either case.
A third death was confirmed on the festival’s final day, September 7. The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office identified the individual as 51-year-old Armando Ramirez of Truckee, California, who experienced a medical emergency in Black Rock City and was being transported to a hospital in Reno, roughly 120 miles away, when he died en route. Because the death occurred in transit outside Pershing County, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office is handling that portion of the investigation.
“Although we average one death a year at the Festival, we have had two so far this year within the confines of the Festival and I have received information regarding a third who died in transit to a hospital in Reno,” Sheriff Allen said in a statement.
A Burning Man Project spokesperson confirmed Ramirez experienced a serious medical emergency Friday morning and received immediate on-site lifesaving measures before being transported. In a statement following Mann’s death, organizers said their thoughts and deepest condolences were with the participant’s family, friends, campmates, and everyone affected by the loss.
This year’s gathering drew an estimated 70,000 participants to the temporary city that rises each year in one of the harshest environments in North America, where attendees are largely responsible for managing their own food, water, and shelter amid extreme heat, dust, and remoteness. The week also saw 34 drug trafficking arrests and reports of spiked drinks under investigation by authorities, according to organizers.
The deaths add to a difficult recent stretch for the festival. In 2024, 39-year-old Kendra Frazer died on the event’s first day after suffering an asthma attack in her sleep. In 2023, 32-year-old Leon Reece was found unresponsive at the festival, with the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office later citing suspected drug intoxication as the cause of death.
Burning Man organizers reiterated that the safety and wellbeing of their community and staff remain the festival’s highest priority.
