A hotshot firefighter who was severely injured by a falling tree while battling the nearly three-week-old Orleans Complex fire in Northern California faces “a long road ahead — emotionally, physically, and financially,” as he recovers in a hospital, his family said.
Renzo Reginato, a member of the Cleveland National Forest El Coriso hotshot team, was one of three firefighters injured in the July 18 incident in Siskiyou County, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Reginato, whose injuries were the most serious, was airlifted to Mercy Medical Center in Redding and underwent emergency orthopedic and neurosurgical procedures for a broken tibia and fibula and a traumatic spinal injury, according to an account posted on GoFundMe by his family.
On Thursday, the family posted a photograph of Reginato smiling and giving a thumbs up in his hospital bed while wearing an El Coriso Hotshots ballcap.
Reginato was fighting the Butler fire, the larger of two Northern California fires comprising the so-called Orleans Complex in rural Siskiyou and Del Norte counties.
The Orleans Complex, which started amid lightning storms in early July, had grown to 22,362 acres and was just 22% contained Sunday, the incident command team overseeing the fire response said in a briefing Sunday morning.
Firefighters faced difficult conditions Sunday as dry thunderstorms brought increased wind and threatened lightening strikes that could ignite new fires, according to the briefing.
At least eight firefighters have been injured while battling the Orleans Complex and the Green fire in Northern California forests that are burning amid extreme heat in steep, bone-dry terrain. A minor injury was reported Saturday.
One firefighter sustained a blunt force trauma wound July 12 while working the fire line on the Green fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to Deanna Younger, a spokesperson for California Interagency Management Team 10.
That lightning-sparked fire had burned 19,002 acres and was 97% contained as of Sunday, according to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Another firefighter suffered a heat-related injury the next day, she said. Both were treated at a hospital and released.
Two firefighters working on the Orleans Complex were stricken with heat illness amid temperatures that topped 110 degrees, Paul Meznarich, a spokesperson for the multiagency team coordinating the response to those fires, reported on July 14.
Nathan Judy, a spokesman for the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California, said he could not disclose firefighter names but confirmed that one firefighter hit by a falling tree while fighting the Orleans Complex on July 18 was airlifted to a hospital in Redding.
One of the other two firefighters hit by the tree also was transferred, evaluated and then released, Judy said. The third was evaluated and released at the scene.
According to the GoFundMe site for Reginato, he remained hospitalized in Redding pending a transfer to Craig Hospital in Denver, a nationally recognized neuro-rehabilitation center.
The site said he “faces a long and difficult road to recovery, supported closely by his fiancée and family.”
“Renzo has dedicated himself to the grueling and selfless work of firefighting,” it said. “He trained, sacrificed, and showed up every day to protect lives and communities. Now he needs our support.”
Though his medical treatment will be covered, the message said the family faces long-term expenses for travel, lodging, meals, and resources to help Reginato “regain independence and adjust to a new way of life.”
A fellow member of the elite El Cariso hotshots was quoted on the GoFundMe recalling the incident.
“We were cutting line and without warning, I heard someone yell, ‘TREE!’ and before I could react, I was hit in the back and rolled 5 to 10 feet downhill,” he wrote.
As of Sunday, 1,924 firefighters were battling the Orleans Complex, which comprises the Butler fire and the much smaller Red fire.
The Butler fire was first reported amid a lightning storm July 3, and has burned more than 22,000 acres in the Six Rivers and Klamath national forests.
The Red fire, which started July 6, was more than 90% contained and had burned 116 acres in the Siskiyou Wilderness in Del Norte County.
