2 Paramedics Killed in Air Crash Honored

The Arleta Chamber of Commerce presented Los Angeles Fire Department Station 81 on Nordhoff Street with a plaque this week to honor two paramedics who died in a March 23 helicopter crash.

Also, the chamber donated $100 to the Fire Department’s Widows and Orphans Fund, said Louise Oliver, chamber president.

The fund benefits the survivors of firefighters and paramedics who die in the line of duty.

Station 81 lost paramedics Michael A. Butler and Eric F. Reiner when a 22-year-old Bell 205A-1 chopper they were in crashed in Griffith Park. Each was 33.

At the time of the accident, 11-year-old car accident victim Norma Vides-Anaya of Sun Valley was being airlifted for emergency treatment at Childrens Hospital in Hollywood. Norma and flight crew member Michael McComb, 48, who worked out of Fire Station 90 in Van Nuys, also died in the crash.

Pilot Steven L. Robinson and flight crew member Dennis Silgen survived.

“Arleta is very small and the fact that Station 81 is in our community, everybody felt a great loss,” Oliver said.

Capt. Ken Buchan of Fire Station 81 accepted the gifts from the chamber and said the plaque will very likely hang in the station’s training room.

“I told them we very much appreciated the moral support,” Buchan said. “It’s nice to have the support of the community.”