California has finally discovered a crime they'll prosecute!
And I'm not complaining at all.
In 2020 a major wildfire near San Bernandino, California, was started when a fire from a couple's gender reveal party got out of control, setting blaze to the nearby forest lands.
You might remember the case.
On September 5, 2020, Refugio Jimenez Jr. and his wife, Angelina, set off a smoke bomb as part of the couple's gender reveal party at the El Dorado Ranch Park in southern San Bernardino County. When the smoke bomb went off, it set fire to some dry grass, which spread quickly. The couple tried to put out the fire with bottled water, but when that failed, they called authorities to alert them to the situation.
The fire soon covered 23,000 acres and caused millions of dollars worth of damage.
The Jimenez couple cooperated with authorities the entire time and never tried to deny being the source of the fire, and a California judge has finally sentenced the couple involved in the November 2020 fire.
On February 9, 2024, Refugio pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and two counts of recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure. He was sentenced to one year in county jail, two years of probation, and 200 hours of community service, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office said in a press release.
Angelina pled guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing fire to property of another and was sentenced to one year summary probation and 400 hours of community service.
In addition, the couple was ordered to pay $1,789,972 to the victims of the fire.
Yeah, I'm not sure how the couple is supposed to come up with $1.8 million in damages, but it is not a shocking punishment considering the damage caused.
And the gender reveal wildfire is, apparently, an increasingly common thing. It happened three times in Alberta, Canada in 2021.
People need to start using common sense again.
But it's good to see California do something to prosecute crime again.
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