Fire chief accused of felony involuntary manslaughter in 2017 blaze
The chief for Mokelumne Hill Fire Protection District has been accused of felony involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of a man who died days after he was burned over 90 percent of his body in the July 2017 Maria Fire in central Calaveras County.
Michael Ray Dell'orto, a veteran firefighter who has been with Moke Hill Fire since 1963, surrendered at Calaveras County Jail on Wednesday, District Attorney's staff based in San Andreas said in a statement.
Dell'orto posted $25,000 bail and was released.
“My attorney says to refer you to the district attorney for information,” someone texted from Dell'orto's mobile phone just before noon Friday.
Dell'orto is accused of felony involuntary manslaughter in a grand jury indictment issued Tuesday that alleges Dell'orto killed David Rios, “in the commission of a lawful act which might have produced death, in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection,” according to a brief statement from District Attorney Barbara Yook's staff. Yook did not respond to requests for further explanation.
Rios died 12 days after he sustained third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body as he tried to escape flames from the Maria Fire on his family's ranch near Jesus Maria Road and Music Gulch Road, between Mokelumne Hill and Mountain Ranch. The Maria Fire started July 17, 2017 and that is the day Rios was overrun by fast-moving flames.
Rios was flown by helicopter medics to the UC Davis Regional Burn Center and given a 3 percent chance of survival because his burns were so critical and lifethreatening, his niece, Leeann Burns, said in a Gofundme announcement before her uncle died.
The Maria Fire burned 117 acres of grass, other vegetation, and debris left over from the 2015 Butte Fire, Cal Fire staff in San Andreas said. No structures burned. The fire was declared 100 percent contained four days after it started. Asked for after action reports and investigation reports from the Maria Fire on Friday, a spokesperson for Cal Fire's state communications bureau said she's been told she cannot discuss matters that are in litigation.
The day the Maria Fire was declared contained, CBS 13 Sacramento published an interview with Dianna Rios, wife of David Rios. She shared a cell phone video showing the Maria Fire racing up a hill toward their home four days earlier. She knew David Rios was still there.
“I told him I was going to go up the road, and he said `OK good, I'm right behind you,'” Dianna Rios told CBS 13. David Rios got caught in the flames. Dianna Rios saw a medevac helicopter and knew it had to be for her husband. “It took seconds to get all the way up to the house.”
The only parts of David Rios' body
that did not burn were just above his ankles and his feet, because he was wearing his work boots, Dianna Rios said. At UC Davis Burn Center, a nurse came to Dianna Rios and handed her David's belt buckle and said, “This is all that's left.”
A year and a half before, the Rios family lost all their cattle in the 2015 Butte Fire. They were just starting to rebuild when the Maria Fire broke out.
Mokelumne Hill Fire Protection District has one part-time paid chief and about a dozen volunteer firefighters, the district's website states.
Yook's staff described the grand jury indictment against Dell'orto as a pending criminal case. Mokelumne Hill Fire Protection District staff and the district board chair also did not respond to requests for comment.
Grand juries in Calaveras County come in two categories, civil and criminal. Members of both grand juries are selected through a standard jury process, Karen Camper, the Calaveras County Superior Court executive officer, said Friday in a phone interview.
Criminal grand juries are sworn to limited periods of time, from one day to multiple days or multiple weeks, at the request of the District Attorney's Office, Camper said. The criminal grand jury that issued the indictment of Dell-orto is no longer seated.
Dell'orto has a court appearance scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 28 in Calaveras County Superior Court.