OROVILLE – A Plumas National Forest firefighter was killed early Sunday in an off-duty motorcycle accident on Highway 149 near Oroville.
Steven E. Zinn, 27, of Chico was riding near Highway 70 when he failed to negotiate a curve and struck a concrete barrier on the road shoulder.
He was ejected from his motorcycle and landed on the pavement, where he was struck by two different vehicles, said D.W. Pederson Jr., a California Highway Patrol officer.
Zinn, who was wearing a helmet but traveling at an extremely high rate of speed, was pronounced dead at the scene, Pederson said.
A nine-year veteran of the Feather River Hotshot crew, Zinn had been working on the Butte Complex of wildland fires, but was off duty at the time of the accident, said Lee Anne Schramel Taylor, a Plumas Forest spokeswoman.
He is the second firefighter to die in an off-duty accident since a series of lightning storms starting June 20 ignited hundreds of fires in California.
– Jane Braxton Little
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