Father pleads guilty to sexting California wildfire

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – A Southern California man whose family's sex-testing ceremony sparked a fire that killed a firefighter in 2020 has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors said Friday.

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The El Dorado fire started on September 5, 2020, when Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angelina Jimenez and their young children were having a gender reveal ceremony at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains.

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A smoke-emitting pyrotechnic device went out into the field and quickly ignited the dry grass in the heat. The couple tried to use bottled water to extinguish the flames and called 911, authorities said.

Strong winds fanned the wildfires in the national forest about 120 kilometers east of Los Angeles. Charles Morton, 39, leader of the elite Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Squad, was killed on September 17, 2020, when flames engulfed a remote area where firefighters were cutting firebreaks. Morton spent 18 years as a firefighter, mostly with the US Forest Service.

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On Friday, the San Bernardino County District Attorney announced that Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of recklessly causing a residential fire. He will be arrested on February 23 to serve a year in prison. His sentence includes two years of felony probation and 200 hours of community service.

Angelina Jimenez pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly setting another's property on fire. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 400 hours of community service. The couple was also ordered to pay $1,789,972 in restitution.

Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.

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“The case was never won,” District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a news release, offering his condolences to Morton's family. “To the victims who lost so much, including their homes with valuables and memories, we understand that these are intangibles.”

The fire injured 13 others and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents in small communities in the San Bernardino National Forest area. It destroyed five houses and 15 other buildings.

The fire will burn approximately 92 square kilometers in San Bernardino and Riverside counties until it is contained on November 16, 2020.

The fire was one of thousands in California's record wildfire season, which has burned more than 4% of the state, destroyed nearly 10,500 buildings and killed 33 people.

Extreme dry conditions and heat waves due to climate change have made fighting wildfires more difficult. Climate change over the past 30 years has made the West warmer and drier, and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

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