By Ronald W. Powell
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SANTA YSABEL, Calif. — Two U.S. Forest Service firefighters were killed and a third was injured Saturday night in a one-car accident on a remote road near Julian.
Authorities said the trio was returning to Pine Hills Fire Station in Cleveland National Forest after having dinner in Julian.
Pronounced dead at the scene were Francesco Nicola D’Amico, 20, of Chula Vista, who was driving, and Daniel Duran, 29, of Calexico, the front seat passenger.
Injured was Adrian Rios, 20, of Chula Vista, who was sitting in a back seat. Rios suffered injuries to his head, chest and right arm, the California Highway Patrol said.
Anna D’Amico said yesterday that her son attended the firefighter academy at Southwestern College after graduating from Chula Vista’s Eastlake High School. She said she knew Rios from the station house, but did not know Duran.
“He was a great, wonderful, tender-hearted young man,” Anna D’Amico said. “He was full of life and a hard worker. He used to say, `Mom, this (firefighting) is kicking my butt,’ but he loved it.”
D’Amico said her son had been busy during his short time as a firefighter. He and members of his engine company helped fight several fires, including the summer’s Horse fire, which burned more than 16,000 acres in the Cleveland National Forest and threatened a dozen communities around Barrett Lake and Morena Reservoir.
D’Amico said her son was among firefighters who responded to the recently extinguished Esperanza fire west of Palm Springs that killed five firefighters, destroyed 34 homes and torched more than 62 square miles in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Francesco D’Amico lived with his family and worked Thursday through Monday. His mother said she last saw him Wednesday night. She said he stayed at the station house on the days he worked instead of traveling back and forth over winding East County roads to the freeways to Chula Vista.
Francesco D’Amico is also survived by an older sister, his mother said. A brother, 19, died six years ago in a car accident.
“This is round two for us,” Anna D’Amico said. “God’s grace gets us through it.”
Relatives of Duran and Rios could not be reached for comment. The U.S. Forest Service did not comment on the accident.
The CHP said the accident occurred about 9:30 p.m. on southbound Boulder Creek Road, south of Eagle Peak Road.
Francesco D’Amico, driving a 1990 BMW sedan, failed to negotiate a curve on the dark road and the car drove off the west side of the roadway, went down an embankment on its side and struck an oak tree, the CHP said.
The accident was discovered two hours later when a passing motorist noticed the lights from the damaged car. Rios, a passenger in the left rear seat, was trapped in the car for two hours, the CHP said.
All three men were wearing seat belts. The cause of the accident is under investigation and will include an inspection of the vehicle, an examination of the accident site and toxicology tests, the CHP said.