More Tragic news from Guatemala’s Fire Service
Maximiliano Ventura Lopez of Guatemala’s Forest Fire Response Brigade (BRIF) died yesterday of burns received while fighting a wildfire in the mountains of San Francisco Chechí, Quiché.
Three of his teammates, Regino Ramos Chich, Luis Alfredo Ramos Ventura and Patricia Raymundo Cruz, were also seriously injured in the blaze. Firefighters Ventura and Cruz required air evacuation to Guatemala City for treatment of their injuries.
The team became separated from the brigade during a period of extreme fire behavior and a search and rescue operation had to be initiated to locate and rescue the missing firefighters. While all the firefighters were found alive, Firefighter Lopez succumbed to his injuries during evacuation.
This is the second fatal incident for BRIF in the past year. On April 15th , 2021 Firefighter Marvin René Letran Velásquez and Operations Chief Luis Adolfo García Gamboa were killed and ten other firefighters injured in a wildfire near Mixco, Guatemala.
This is also the second firefighter killed this week in Guatemala. Firefighter Wendy Boc of the 105th compañía, San Pedro Bomberos Voluntarios died in an explosion and fire at a fireworks manufacturing business on March 24th.
AMEDICAusa offers our most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and all of the agencies involved, and our hopes and prayers for those recovering.
“A loss of one is a loss for all.”