The U.S. Forest Service announced the passing of a San Bernardino National Forest firefighter who fell ill and died in November.
Edward Godinez died in November from a work-related illness, according to a Dec. 7 press release from the USDA Forest Service.
Godinez was the acting San Bernardino Airtanker Base manger and had recently selected to serve in that role permanently.
“Edward never judged anyone for their inexperience and took it upon himself to personally develop each of us not as ‘firefighters’ but as a community, as friends, and as people," Godinez’s airtanker crew shared in a statement.
Godinez started his career in 2013 as a contracted firefighter with Angeles’ Roadrunner Crew.
From there he worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and in 2019 landed at San Bernardino as the Airtanker Base engineer.
