Father in gender-reveal that sparked fatal 2020 California wildfire has pleaded guilty
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A man whose family’s gender reveal ceremony in 2020 sparked a Southern California wildfire that killed a firefighter has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors announced the guilty plea on Friday. The El Dorado Fire erupted on Sept. 5, 2020, when Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angelina Jimenez and their young children staged a baby gender reveal at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains. Charles Morton, the 39-year-old leader of the elite Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Squad, was killed days later. Attorneys for the couple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
