Husband jailed after expectant parents’ gender-reveal stunt sparks deadly wildfire
A California couple whose gender-reveal pyrotechnic show sparked a massive blaze that killed a firefighter have both pleaded guilty — with the dad getting one year behind bars for involuntary manslaughter.
The El Dorado Fire erupted Sept. 5, 2020, when Refugio Jimenez Jr., his wife Angelina Jimenez, and their young kids staged a photo shoot for their baby gender reveal at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains.
The inferno killed Charles Morton, 39, leader of the elite firefighting Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Squad, injured 13 other people, destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings, and led to hundreds of evacuations.
Dad Jimenez Jr. pleaded guilty Friday to one count of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure, the San Bernardino County district attorney announced.
He will be taken into custody on Feb. 23 to serve a year in jail. His sentence includes two years of felony probation and 200 hours of community service.
Angelina pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing fire to the property of another. She was sentenced to a year of summary probation and 400 hours of community service.
The duo, who initially pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges and 29 other counts, were also ordered to pay $1,789,972 in restitution.
“Resolving the case was never going to be a win,” District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement, offering condolences to the late smoke-eater’s family.
He decried the couple’s “reckless conduct,” which he said had a “tremendous impact on land, properties, emergency response resources, the displacement of entire communities, and resulted in the tragic death.”
Anderson continued: “To the victims who lost so much, including their homes with valuables and memories, we understand those are intangibles can never be replaced.
“Our hope with this resolution is that it closes a painful chapter in your lives, and the restitution provides a measure of assistance in becoming whole again,” he added.
The Jimenezes tried to extinguish the blaze with bottled water, but it was quickly stoked by strong winds and dry conditions and took more than two months to contain, officials said.
In addition to the manslaughter charge, the couple had faced three felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, four felony counts of recklessly causing a fire to inhabited structures and 22 misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing fire to property.
Before taking the pleas, they were facing more than 20 years in prison if convicted of all counts.
The incident was not the first time a gender reveal stunt sparked devastating fires.
In July 2021, an explosive device set off at a baby welcoming party sparked a wildfire in Canada.
In 2017, an expectant Arizona father was fined $8 million for setting off an inferno that destroyed about 48,000 acres during a gender reveal stunt that was captured on camera.
