Dallas Justin Blake Hernandez

May 5th, 1994 - September 10th, 2015

Dallas served his community as an EMT and volunteer firefigher in Patterson, CA. Funds raised will go towards his services, memorials, scholarships and donations.

Dallas Hernandez, 21, a Patterson area West Stanislaus Fire Protection District (WSFPD) volunteer, died after his car crashed into a tractor trailer Thursday morning in Merced County.

Hernandez’s Chevrolet Cruze was going about 55 miles per hour at around 2 a.m. near Minturn and Le Grand roads in Le Grand, Calif., when it rear-ended a semi stopped at a stop sign and about to make a turn, ABC30 reported.

Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene. His girlfriend, Kayleigh Haas, was a passenger in the car and sustained major injuries.

Haas was flown to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto and is in stable condition. The driver of the semi did not sustain injuries.

WSFPD and Patterson Fire Department Chief Steven Hall said Hernandez was an up-and-coming firefighter.

“He would do anything for you, and was a very bright individual,” Hall said. “He came into the fire service raw. He had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up.”

Hall added that in the years since Hernandez began as a fire explorer at 17 years old in 2012, it became his dream to serve full-time as a firefighter.

“He probably would’ve been one of our next firefighters,” Hall said.

Hernandez and Haas were both newly employed at Riggs Ambulance in Merced, the ambulance service that responded to the Thursday morning accident. “So their employees are kind of in shock too,” Hall said.

The volunteer completed the Modesto Junior College Fire Academy, and he was in the process of becoming a certified paramedic after recently graduating from a paramedic program.

A column written by Hall and published in the Aug. 14, 2014, issue of the Patterson Irrigator highlighted Hernandez.

“I like to help people and serve the community in any way I can,” Hernandez wrote in a bio for the column in January of 2014. “It’s also nice to be there for somebody when they need you most. I also feel like volunteering makes me a better citizen.”