Local News

JUNCTION CITY (CBS 5 / AP) ― Eight firefighters and a pilot were presumed dead and four others were seriously injured in the crash of a helicopter that had just picked up workers battling a blaze in a Northern California forest, officials said Wednesday.
 
The helicopter had just lifted off from a clearing in a remote, rugged region of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest when it went down, said Jennifer Rabuck, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

The aircraft was carrying 11 firefighters and two crew members when it crashed Tuesday night north of Junction City, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Four people were flown to hospitals with severe burns, including two in critical condition, according to the Forest Service.

The Sikorsky S-61N chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing "under unknown circumstances," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. FAA and NTSB investigators were headed to the scene, about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Firefighters who were waiting to be picked up helped rescue the injured after the helicopter crashed around 7:30 p.m. and caught fire, Rabuck said. About three dozen firefighters had to spend the night on the mountain because it became too dark for other helicopters to land, she said.

Nine people - a co-pilot and eight firefighters - were still missing in the wreckage and presumed killed. Recovery efforts have been complicated by the remote location, and the wreckage is still burning, Rabuck said.

"It's difficult to access," she said. "It's very remote, very steep and heavily forested."

The firefighters had been working at the north end of a more than 27-square-mile fire burning in the Shasta-Trinity forest, part of the larger Iron Complex of blazes that total 135 square miles. The complex was about 87 percent contained on Wednesday. 

"We are praying for the swift recovery of all the victims, and our hearts go out to their loved ones," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

Some of the firefighters, including those in the hospital, were employed by firefighting contractor Grayback Forestry, based in Merlin, Oregon. Mike Wheelock, Grayback's founder and owner, would not confirm any deaths.

Grayback firefighters Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18, as well as a co-pilot of the helicopter, were being treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, according to the contractor. Brown was upgraded to fair condition late Wednesday and Frohreich remained in critical condition, according to the hospital and fire officials.

A spokesman said the hospital also was treating a crash victim in critical condition named William Coultas, but could not confirm whether the patient's was the helicopter's co-pilot.

Leora Frohreich, Jonathan Frohreich's grandmother, said this was the young man's first working as a wildland firefighter and that the experience had persuaded him to further his education. He planned to attend a mechanics school this fall. He had worked on a fire near Williams, Oregon, for three weeks and then was on the Shasta-Trinity fire for four days, the grandmother said. His crew was being flown out for some rest when the helicopter crashed, she said.

"I'm so thankful because he's just lucky to be alive," Frohreich said, adding that the firefighter's parents, sister and girlfriend had gone to Sacramento to be with him. "You can't be in a crash like that and not hurt."

Another Grayback employee, identified as Rick Schoeder, 42, was in serious but stable condition at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, officials said.

The helicopter was owned and operated by Carson Helicopters Inc., a Pennsylvania company whose firefighting operations are based in Grants Pass, Oregon. All 12 of the company's helicopters are being used for firefighting in Oregon and California, said Bob Madden, Carson's director of corporate affairs.

The Sikorsky S-61 is the only wildland firefighting helicopter in the nation equipped to simultaneously carry both water and crew. It can carry up to 18 firefighters and drop up to 1,000 gallons of water via a suspended bucket.

Madden said the helicopter's two co-pilots were Carson employees - one was hospitalized and the other was among the missing. The company would not release their names until officials confirmed their identities and notified family members.

Before Tuesday's helicopter crash, three firefighters had been killed while on duty in California this year, including one firefighter also assigned to battle the Shasta-Trinity blazes who was killed last month by a falling tree.

On July 2, a volunteer firefighter in Mendocino County died of a heart attack on the fire line. Another firefighter was killed July 26 in when he was burned while scouting a fire.

Lightning Storm Fires

Meanwhile, fire crews were busy containing a series of small fires sparked by an electrical storm that generated an estimated 2,000 lightning strikes in northern California, southern Oregon and western Nevada on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Basil Newmerzhycky, a Forest Service meteorologist in Redding.

The lightning storm set off at least a "few dozen" small fires across the region, none of which had grown into major blazes so far, Newmerzhycky said. By contrast, a massive lightning storm on June 21 generated about 8,000 strikes that sparked more 2,000 fires that became the largest fire event in California history.
 
Butte County

The storm stoked a complex of blazes in rural Butte County that threatened about 70 homes. It more than doubled in size to 4 square miles, or 2,500 acres, after firefighters were forced to briefly retreat from unpredictable winds unleashed by passing thunderclouds, state fire officials said.

As a result, that fire's containment level to dropped from 30 percent to 20 percent, said Anthony Brown, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. 

"All the work of the fire crews came to a cease because of safety reasons," Brown said. "When they retreated, it allowed the fire to consume a bigger area."

Residents living between the middle and southern forks of the Feather River, which feeds into Lake Oroville, had been told to evacuate, and officials pushed back their prediction for when the fire would be surrounded from Wednesday to Sunday.

Lightning from the passing storm front also started a few fires in the Inyo National Forest, including one that burned about 100 acres near Bishop before fire crews stopped its spread, said Carrie McDivitt, a Forest Service dispatcher.

Mariposa County

A wildfire outside of Yosemite National Park that was started July 25 by a person taking target shooting practice was completely contained on Wednesday, after destroying at least 30 homes and consuming about 53 square miles, or 34,000 acres, in Mariposa County.

Officials revised their count of homes destroyed again - up from 28 - after surveying the damage.

State fire officials were investigating whether the person who started that blaze should be prosecuted.

Schwarzenegger also declared a state of emergency in Humboldt County on Wednesday because of the unhealthy air quality caused by fires there. It's one of 13 county emergency declarations the governor has declared this year due to the blazes.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)