Eugene Ottonello, official of the Bureau of Land Management, died at 47, on November 13, 1997, while working on a prescribed burn in Nevada. Eugene, a decorated Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam war, began experiencing difficulty breathing and collapsed during a prescribed fire in Nye County’s Railroad Valley. He died of cardiac failure induced by respiratory distress.
He was survived by parents Gino and Nancy Ottonello, wife Janet, two sons, and a daughter.