An Orange County Fire Authority firefighter who suffered critical burns while battling the Silverado Fire last October is finally being released from the hospital. Dylan Van Iwaarden, 26, was one of two firefighters injured while battling the Silverado Fire. He was discharged Wednesday afternoon to the rehabilitation unit at UC Irvine Medical Center. He has spent 114 days at the Orange County Burn Center in Santa Ana and underwent 17 surgeries, OCFA said. At one point he was in a medically induced coma. As the 26-year-old was pushed on a gurney along the sidewalk in front of the OC Burn Center at Santa Ana’s Orange County Global Medical Center, dozens of members of his department, doctors, nurses, family and friends clapped and cheered.

The Silverado Fire occurred in October of 2020, months later, a firefighter who was severely injured was released from the hospital. Dylan Van Iwaarden sat up in a gurney as he was wheeled out of Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana. Van Iwaarden went through over a dozen surgeries due to his skin being extremely burned from the Silverado Fire. “I’m so thankful for everybody being here for me. It was tragic then, but I’m getting better,” Van Iwaarden said. His arms were bandaged and he wore a hat and mask but deep scars were visible on his cheeks and hands. Van Iwaarden was initially placed in a medically induced coma, spent 114 days in the hospital’s burn center and underwent 17 surgeries, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. He needed operations to replace dead skin with skin from other parts of his body, doctors said.

At Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, tents were set up outside the emergency room Thursday evening to deal with the influx of COVID-19 patients. But finding enough staff to treat all the patients has become a larger problem than finding enough beds, said Dr. Tirso del Junco Jr., chief medical officer at KPC Health, the company that runs the hospital.

“Our challenge is getting the nurses,” del Junco told KTLA. “We have beds — if we can get the nursing staff and get them in the numbers that we need. I think everybody’s being challenged by that.” Del Junco added that the hospital system has been experiencing a shortage of doctors, as well