Crash Kills 3 Fighting Fires in N. California

The crash of an air tanker and the deaths of the three crewmen aboard brought to seven the number of firefighters killed in blazes that have blackened about 760,000 acres of Western wilderness during the last three weeks, officials said Thursday.

The C-119, carrying fire retardant, crashed Wednesday night “during an initial attack” on a fire six miles west of Castle Crags State Park in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California, officials said.

The accident did not occur in the actual fire zone, but it touched off a small blaze that was quickly contained by firefighters.

Authorities identified the victims as William Berg, 48, of Arlington, Wash., the pilot; Charles Peterson, 28, of Sheridan, Wyo., co-pilot; and Steve Hatrell, 26, of Greybull, Wyo., a mechanic.

Team to Investigate

Rachel Lynn, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, said the U.S. Forest Service in Washington sent an eight-member team to investigate the crash.

The victims were civilians working under government contract to help battle the blazes.

Four other firefighters have been killed while on duty in Northern and Central California since the blazes erupted Aug. 28. Three died in vehicle accidents, and one was killed by a falling tree.

The injury count was near 100, said a spokesman at a state-federal command post in Sacramento.

Fires in the Shasta-Trinity and Klamath national forests were the last priority problems among more than 1,000 blazes still burning in the West.

Lynn said of the Shasta-Trinity fires: “We’ve had fairly decent cool weather that’s prompted a slow rate of spread. Temperatures early this morning were in the 30s, so it’s not going to have a lot of heat. Mother Nature’s helping us there.”

Still out of control, she said, was a complex of fires covering more than 6,500 acres 60 miles west of Redding, Calif.

Back Fires Set

In southwestern Oregon, firefighters were setting back fires in hopes of stopping the spread of a fire in the Siskiyou National Forest, the last major blaze in the state. That fire has burned 32,100 acres in steep sections of the forest.

The Forest Service said firefighters had decided to burn out an area about five miles long to protect a ranch on the west side of the blaze. A mother and her two teen-age children were evacuated from the ranch.

In north-central Idaho’s Nezperce National Forest, the Cove Creek fire grew to 4,600 acres Wednesday. A line was cut around the entire blaze, but officials said they were listing it as only 60% contained until the back fires that they set during the day solidified the line.