In November 2011, Gabriel Terry and others from a Tuolumne County firefighting crew were dispatched to fight a wildland blaze that began when a supposedly controlled burn got out of control.
Employees of the Don Pedro Recreation Agency, which is part of the Turlock Irrigation District, set out to burn some brush piles. But, according to court documents, they did not have the proper clearance around the piles, burned on a no-burn day and violated their California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection permit in other ways as well. The burn area bordered private property that included a mineshaft indicated on a map of the area, but with nothing posted to warn of the hazard. The fire extinguished, Terry walked around the area to take a final look. Darkness had set in. As he went through some brush, he fell into a mineshaft hole. He’s a big man at 6 feet 6 inches, and he landed hard on a boulder in the hole. Terry didn’t know it immediately, but his fledgling firefighting career ended at that very moment. Four and a half years, two reconstructive ankle surgeries, a hip surgery and injections to ease his back pain later, he still wears an ankle brace and might need more operations.