By Vanessa Vasconcelos, Alyssa Flores and ABC30.Com Staff
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Efforts to contain the Hills Fire in Western Fresno County took a deadly turn on Wednesday.
A helicopter making water drops over the wildfire crashed, killing the pilot, the only person on board.
After hours of driving over rugged off-road terrain, the Fresno County Sheriff’s search and rescue team made it to the very remote crash site to recover the body of the pilot on Wednesday evening.
CAL FIRE officials say the crash happened around 10 am Wednesday morning.
According to aviation website Flight Aware, the pilot was 3,300 feet in the air before the flight path suddenly stopped.
Fresno County Sheriff’s search and rescue teams were called out by CAL FIRE to make the trip through rugged terrain about 2-3 miles off the main road to the site of the crash.
The crash sparked what CAL FIRE calls an incident within an incident: a new 50-acre blaze that later merged into the Hill Fire, which has now charred 1500 acres 9 miles south of Coalinga. It is 35% contained.
As the news of the deadly crash makes its way around base camp and fire lines, a critical incident stress debriefing team will be made available to crews.
“It’s tough on the crews. Whether you knew the person or didn’t know the person, we are still all fighting this fire together. The camaraderie is very high,” says Seth Brown with CAL FIRE.
CAL FIRE says there’s no estimate on when recovery crews might return from the crash site due to the nature of the terrain. Read more from ABC 30
