By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer
The skeletal remains of a U.S. Forest Service firefighter, missing since 2020, have been positively identified by the County Coroner’s Office as those of Big Bear Hot Shot crewmember Carlos Baltazar.
Baltazar was off-duty when he was reported missing five years ago during the deadly Eldorado Fire in San Bernardino and Riverside counties in September 2020. His skull was discovered adjacent to Smart’s Ranch Road, near Cactus Flats, by a hunter last October and positively identified in February of this year by Coroner’s investigators who employed DNA technology to confirm that additional skeletal remains found in the same general area were those of Baltazar, who was 35 when he first went missing.
Baltazar’s niece, Melinda Herrera, in a recent post on GoFundMe, shared that her uncle was preparing to attend a funeral service for his squad leader, who had perished while battling the Eldorado Fire. “Carlos went to report to the barracks to prepare for the funeral service and had not been seen after talking with co-workers. Apparently, he left the barracks a short time after arriving,” she wrote.
“Later, his vehicle was found crashed along Highway 18. Our family started to get worried after not hearing from him as it was not like him to not call. He was very family-oriented and always kept in touch. We went to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s office Thursday, where we found out they had found his vehicle crashed, and they had not been able to locate him.
“The sheriff searched for a couple days and could not find him. Our family has been going through so much agony and pain not knowing what happened to him these past years. Not having closure has been so horrible, especially for his 77-year-old mother, who is left to raise his 14-year-old son, Carlos Alexander Baltazar Jr.”
So far, $10,650 has been raised by 203 contributing donors on Carlos Baltazar’s GoFundMe page.
Herrera added these thoughts to the GoFundMe page on March 11: “Our family deeply appreciates everyone that has donated. We cherish everyone’s kind words and those that have been on this hard journey with us. Our family may not have answers to why Carlos had to leave us so soon but we have tons of love and support, and especially we finally have our closure. We are almost to our goal to finally bring our sweet angel Carlos home and properly celebrate his life, like he deserved. ❤️”
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