Today marks 1-year since local firefighter died battling Northern California wildfire
On October 16, 2017, Mecca native Garrett Paiz was killed in a rollover crash while battling the wildfires in Northern California.
Paiz was the driver of a water truck and was on his way to deliver a full tank of water to help fight the Nuns Fire. The truck rolled over in Napa County, according to Cal Fire and California Highway Patrol officials. His family told KESQ & CBS Local 2 they believed fatigue played a factor in his death.
According to Paiz’s Facebook page, he graduated from Coachella Valley High School and studied Agriculture Education and Extension at College of the Desert.
Paiz moved to Noel, Missouri in 2016 and was a firefighter there for a year. He decided to return to California to help fellow firefighters save others in the middle of a record-breaking 2017 wildfire season.
Dozens of family members, friends, and colleagues lined up to greet his body when it returned to his hometown days later.
Firefighters remembered him as a kindhearted, humorous man who was very passionate about fire service.
“Anytime we had a wildland fire around where we were, he was always the leader. He would come out and show other guys how do certain things and stuff like that. He was very passionate,” Noel Fire Chief Brandon Barrett told KESQ & CBS Local 2.
Paiz was laid to rest at the Coachella Valley Cemetery on October 27.
Family told KESQ & CBS Local 2 they admired that he got to get out of the valley and achieve his dreams.
“He was just one of those kids from a small town in Mecca that actually got out of the town and lived his dreams,” said Cinthia Paiz, Garnett’s sister. “That’s what he would want everyone to remember him by that he went out there and lived his dreams.”
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