Couple Pleads Guilty Over Gender Reveal Party that Caused California Wildfire

A couple who sparked the deadly El Dorado Wildfire in September 2020 by having pyrotechnics from a gender reveal party go out of hand pled guilty to multiple charges over the weekend, including one count of involuntarily manslaughter.

The case dates back to September 5, 2020. That day, Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez hosted a gender reveal party at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa in San Bernardino County. However, during the time of the reveal, a pyrotechnic that released smoke that was in a field with dry grass, malfunctioned. This quickly started a fire, and despite the couple trying to put it out and calling 911, it quickly spread through the park and into the San Bernardino Mountains.

Over the next two weeks, the El Dorado Fire continued to rage, with dry conditions and high winds propelling it across some fire breaks put up to stop it. On September 17th, a firefighter at one of these breaks, 18-year firefighting veteran Charles Morton, was killed in the blaze. By the time the fire was finally put down in November, it had also caused around $8 million in damages, including 10 structures being destroyed and another 6 being damaged, another 13 people being injured, and nearly 23,000 acres being burned up.

“Resolving the case was never going to be a win,” Anderson said over the weekend. “To the victims who lost so much, including their homes with valuables and memories, we understand those are intangibles can never be replaced.”

Meanwhile, Refugio Jimenez Jr.’s lawyer, Mike Scafiddi, noted, “The couple has wanted to speak publicly about the fire, its impact on the community and Morton’s death but cannot because of the ongoing federal litigation. They have been praying for Mr. Morton and his family every night since his death. It has touched them profoundly. It was unforeseeable in all minds.”

However, fire workers told the Globe on Monday that they are outraged that the couple did not get more jail time or punishments as a result.

“They should have been locked away for much longer. Any firefighter controlling and extinguishing wildfires out there will tell you that,” a wildfire fighter who wished to remain anonymous, told the Globe on Monday. “They willingly brought pyrotechnics to a park area during a dry season. There was no excuse for that. And we lost someone because of that.”

“I know this isn’t Paradise where over 80 died or anything like that. And this isn’t arson. But the fact remains that they caused a fire than injured many and killed one. And the man gets just one year in prison? She doesn’t get any? They do have to pay over a million dollars, and I get because they have kids they probably figured special circumstances or something. But it was an emotional gut punch for many of us. We wanted 5 years. 10 years. Something to show people that you can’t do things like this. And this honestly doesn’t seem like enough.”

“A man lost his life protecting people because of something these people did, and between them just a year in jail, some probations, community service, and a million dollars. They’ll probably be paying that for the rest of their lives, but you know, it won’t bring our brother back.”

Jimenez Jr. is to report to jail on February 23rd.