SeaBreeze
01-14-2007, 08:56 PM
Probe begins into fatal helicopter crash at Idaho wildfire
JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN
Associated Press Writer
August 15, 2006
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal investigators arrived in central Idaho Monday to review a helicopter crash that killed a pilot and three firefighters on a suppression mission in the Payette National Forest.
A seven-member team of U.S. Forest Service aviation experts and an agent with the National Transportation Safety Board met in McCall on Monday to begin its investigation.
The helicopter was ferrying three firefighters with the Payette forest to a station near the South Fork of the Salmon River when it crashed Sunday.
It was not clear whether they were awaiting assignment or attached to a specific fire, Payette spokesman Boyd Hartwig said. The helicopter was not carrying a bucket for water drops.
Evergreen International Aviation Inc., of McMinnville, Ore., owned the helicopter, said spokesman Tim Wahlberg.
Those killed were pilot Quin Stone, 42, of Emmett, Idaho, and Payette forest employees Michael Gene Lewis, 37, of Cascade, and Monica Lee Zajanc, 27, of Boise. The name of the fourth victim was not released pending notification of family.
The crash occurred as fire crews are being stretched thin across the West.
The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, which coordinates 15,000 firefighters nationwide, imported several teams of firefighters from Australia and New Zealand last week to reinforce fire lines in the Northwest and the Northern Rockies.
In Washington state, about 550 soldiers from Fort Lewis are being sent to fires burning on 83,436 acres in the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests of north-central Washington.
Soldiers are expected be deployed for about two months, said Army Maj. Cathy Wilkinson, a 1st Corps plans and operations officer. There are more than 2,285 firefighters assigned to the Tripod and Spur Peak fires, which were caused by July lightning strikes.
In Idaho, a 280-person team is attacking the South Fork Fire Complex, a stubborn cluster of 25 blazes sparked by lightning and burning in dry timber.
The stubborn Potato fire, which has been burning in the Salmon-Challis National Forest seven miles north of Stanley, grew to more than 25 square miles and continued to threaten some vacation cabins. It was being fought by more than 700 firefighters.
Also on the Salmon-Challis, the 1,850-acre Trail fire encroached on a dude ranch and guesthouse on private land in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
Guests at the Diamond D Ranch were evacuated, but some residents remain, said Salmon-Challis spokesman Kent Fuellenbach.
Firefighters in Southern California reported progress on a brush fire that had scorched 7 1/2 square miles, or 4,800 acres, in northern Los Angeles County, authorities said. It was 60 percent contained late Monday.
Since igniting Sunday afternoon, the fire prompted authorities to temporarily close a portion of Interstate 5 in the area, threatened a Southern California Edison substation and caused seven downed power lines. At one point, some 4,450 homes were without power for about an hour.
About 950 firefighters were assigned to the blaze, which was expected to be fully contained Wednesday, authorities said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060815/NEWS/60815002
JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN
Associated Press Writer
August 15, 2006
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal investigators arrived in central Idaho Monday to review a helicopter crash that killed a pilot and three firefighters on a suppression mission in the Payette National Forest.
A seven-member team of U.S. Forest Service aviation experts and an agent with the National Transportation Safety Board met in McCall on Monday to begin its investigation.
The helicopter was ferrying three firefighters with the Payette forest to a station near the South Fork of the Salmon River when it crashed Sunday.
It was not clear whether they were awaiting assignment or attached to a specific fire, Payette spokesman Boyd Hartwig said. The helicopter was not carrying a bucket for water drops.
Evergreen International Aviation Inc., of McMinnville, Ore., owned the helicopter, said spokesman Tim Wahlberg.
Those killed were pilot Quin Stone, 42, of Emmett, Idaho, and Payette forest employees Michael Gene Lewis, 37, of Cascade, and Monica Lee Zajanc, 27, of Boise. The name of the fourth victim was not released pending notification of family.
The crash occurred as fire crews are being stretched thin across the West.
The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, which coordinates 15,000 firefighters nationwide, imported several teams of firefighters from Australia and New Zealand last week to reinforce fire lines in the Northwest and the Northern Rockies.
In Washington state, about 550 soldiers from Fort Lewis are being sent to fires burning on 83,436 acres in the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests of north-central Washington.
Soldiers are expected be deployed for about two months, said Army Maj. Cathy Wilkinson, a 1st Corps plans and operations officer. There are more than 2,285 firefighters assigned to the Tripod and Spur Peak fires, which were caused by July lightning strikes.
In Idaho, a 280-person team is attacking the South Fork Fire Complex, a stubborn cluster of 25 blazes sparked by lightning and burning in dry timber.
The stubborn Potato fire, which has been burning in the Salmon-Challis National Forest seven miles north of Stanley, grew to more than 25 square miles and continued to threaten some vacation cabins. It was being fought by more than 700 firefighters.
Also on the Salmon-Challis, the 1,850-acre Trail fire encroached on a dude ranch and guesthouse on private land in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
Guests at the Diamond D Ranch were evacuated, but some residents remain, said Salmon-Challis spokesman Kent Fuellenbach.
Firefighters in Southern California reported progress on a brush fire that had scorched 7 1/2 square miles, or 4,800 acres, in northern Los Angeles County, authorities said. It was 60 percent contained late Monday.
Since igniting Sunday afternoon, the fire prompted authorities to temporarily close a portion of Interstate 5 in the area, threatened a Southern California Edison substation and caused seven downed power lines. At one point, some 4,450 homes were without power for about an hour.
About 950 firefighters were assigned to the blaze, which was expected to be fully contained Wednesday, authorities said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060815/NEWS/60815002