Two helicopter pilots died after crashing while helping battle a wildfire in Utah, officials confirmed Saturday.
The Sevier County Sheriff said the pilots were aboard a Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter when it went down Friday morning.
The aircraft was part of the aerial response to a fire burning in Fishlake National Forest.
Authorities said the crash sparked another fire, which spread until it merged with the original blaze. Together, the fire has burned nearly 174 square miles.
The pilots have not been publicly identified. Officials said they worked for Helicopter Transport Services, a company operating under contract with the US Forest Service.
At first, officials said crews could not reach the crash site because flames made the area inaccessible.
By Saturday, responders were able to get into the site and confirmed both deaths, according to the Sevier County sheriff and coroner.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to investigate once its team can inspect the wreckage. Determining the cause will likely take the agency a year or longer.
Numerous fires also were burning in other parts of the West, including one that closed part of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.
The National Park Service shut down access to the Sunrise and White River areas of the park after a new wildfire burned less than a third of a square mile.
Firefighters were working to gain control of it.
Larger fires near Spokane, Washington, have now burned more than 15.63 square miles, but firefighters constructed more than 75 miles of containment line to help control those flames.
Meanwhile in Oregon, hot and dry conditions helped an uncontrolled fire spread beyond 30 square miles.
Firefighters were still trying to identify the best places to set up containment lines around the Wrights Spring fire as they mourned the death of 47-year-old Jason Ensign, who was killed while operating a bulldozer for a timber company.
The blaze grew rapidly Thursday and cut off Ensign’s escape route.
And north of the border in British Columbia, more than 20,000 people had to evacuate ahead of another fast-moving wildfire.
