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The California couple whose gender reveals the fireworks display sparked massive hell that killed a firefighter last year have each been charged with manslaughter.
Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez have pleaded not guilty to the felony charge and 29 other counts related to the El Dorado fire in September 2020, officials said.
The wildfire was reportedly started by the couple’s smoke-generating pyrotechnic device that set fire to dry grass at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains, 120 km east of LA.
The Jimenez tried unsuccessfully to put out the blaze with bottled water, but it was quickly fueled by strong winds and dry conditions, authorities said.
The El Dorado fire, which took more than two months to control, killed Charles Morton, 39, leader of the elite Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Squad, and injured 13 others.
The blaze destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings, led to hundreds of evacuations, and ultimately affected some 36 square miles.
The Jimenezes were released on their own recognizance, despite prosecutors’ demand that they each be held on $ 50,000 bail, and are due to return to court at the end of the summer, according to The Desert Sun.
In addition to the manslaughter charge, the couple face three counts of recklessly causing a fire with serious bodily harm, four counts of recklessly causing a fire to structures inhabited and 22 counts of recklessly causing fire to property, according to the newspaper.
The couple face more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts, according to the report.
The incident was not the first time that a gender revealing coup has sparked destructive fires.
Earlier this month, an explosive device triggered at a baby shower sparked a wildfire in Canada.
In 2017, an Arizona-to-be dad was fined $ 8 million for starting a hell that destroyed nearly 48,000 acres in a genre-revealing stunt on film.
With AP wires
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