Firefighter dies battling California blaze
Flames this year consume more acres in state than in the past 2 years combined
A firefighter died while battling a fire that was sparked during a celebration to reveal the sex of a baby in Southern California, authorities said Friday, the 26th person to die in the fires that have consumed California this summer.
The name of the firefighter was being withheld until family members were notified. The cause of the death was under investigation.
“Our deepest sympathies are with the family, friends and fellow firefighters during this time,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Zach Behrens said in the statement.
No other information about the firefighter, the agency the firefighter worked for or the circumstances of the firefighter’s death was released. Behrens said in a telephone interview that he could not comment beyond details in the statement.
The firefighter’s death in the El Dorado Fire was the latest tragedy caused by blazes that are torching the western United States. Fires have burned across more than 5 million acres in California, Oregon and Washington, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and sending smoke pouring into cities far from the flames.
In California, the fires have burned across more land this year than in the past two years combined. Of the 10 largest fires to burn in California since 1932, five occurred this year. In Oregon, fires have burned across nearly 1 million acres, destroying entire towns.
Firefighters were also tackling a new blaze that started Thursday near Palm Springs, Calif., and had burned through 2,500 acres by Friday morning. The blaze, known as the Snow Fire, was threatening several homes in the unincorporated community of Snow Creek, which was under an evacuation order.
The firefighter who died in California was killed Thursday, the Forest Service said, while working in the San Bernardino National Forest on the El Dorado Fire, which has more than 19,000 acres since Sept. 5.
Officials have blamed a “gender-reveal” party for starting the fire, saying that a family’s attempt to use a smoke-generating device to reveal a baby’s sex instead ignited nearby grass and the flames quickly spread.
The family had tried to douse the flames using water bottles but was soon outmatched, Capt. Bennet Milloy of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said at the time.
Criminal charges were being considered, Milloy said before the firefighter’s death, but would not be filed before the fire is extinguished. It was about two-thirds contained as of Friday morning. The family had called 911 to report the fire and later shared photos with investigators. Milloy said Cal Fire could ask the family to reimburse the cost of fighting the fire.
“I can’t speak on their behalf,” Milloy said of the family, “but personally, I can only imagine how terrible they have to feel for a lot of reasons.”
Nearly 95% of fires in California are caused by people, and the vast majority are unintentional, but people who accidentally set off large blazes have been criminally charged in some cases.
One man spent two years in prison after prosecutors said a blade from his lawn mower struck a rock near Redding in 2004, causing a spark that started a fire that destroyed dozens of homes.
In 2003, a hunter who got lost in a forest in San Diego County set a fire in hopes of drawing authorities to his location, but the fire ultimately burned more than 200,000 acres and killed 15 people. That man was sentenced to community service.