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Tough Business

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JediNein

No One Special at all
Joined
Apr 28, 2002
Posts
1,256
I just saw the video of this crash. May they rest in peace.
Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

Fire-Fighting Air Tanker Crashes

By TOM GARDNER
Associated Press Writer

WALKER, Calif. (AP) — An air tanker fighting a blaze near Yosemite National Park caught fire Monday and crashed in this Northern California resort town, authorities and witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Medical crews were sent to the mountain hamlet after the plane went down in a ball of flames, said Laura Williams, spokeswoman for the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center in Minden, Nev.

Williams said she had no information on the crew and it wasn't clear whether anyone on the ground was injured. She said firefighting tankers typically carry three people.

Other aircraft battling the fire were grounded. High winds had grounded tankers and helicopters Sunday.

Terri Russell, a reporter for KOLO-TV in Reno who witnessed the crash, said one of the plane's wings was on fire before the tanker lost altitude and crashed within 150 feet of an auto shop.

``I'm standing here looking at the tail section,'' shop owner Mike Mandichaka told The Associated Press by telephone. ``My shop is right next door. It almost hit it.''

The tanker was battling a 6,500-acre blaze that has forced 400 people out of their homes in Walker, which is 90 miles south of Reno, Nev., and about 25 miles north of Yosemite. At least one home has burned.

Many residents made a narrow escape from wind-whipped flames Sunday night.

``The flames were coming down the mountain toward the town so it was time to go,'' Dan McCall said as he watched the fire burn a few miles east of town Monday afternoon.

``You could feel the heat and hear the roar of the flames,'' he said.

The fire began Saturday in a remote section of the Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest that the Marines use for survival training. Unexploded ordnance in the steep, rugged area was slowing containment efforts, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

The agency said the fire was ``human'' caused but had no other details. It was only 7 percent contained Monday and was being fought by some 600 firefighters.
 
Well...

Now that B*I*T*C*H whom started this fire, that Park Service gal who was charged with arson and destroying federal land today,
now has the death of a flight crew on her hands.

I think she can be charged with their death, wasn't that the case a while back in Cali?

Mike :mad:
 
My bad.

I thought it was the Colorado fire.

But still, who ever started that fire now has the death of those fire fighters to answer for.

Mike
 
AP News Alert
By Associated Press


June 17, 2002, 8:57 PM EDT


WALKER, Calif. -- Three crewmen confirmed dead in crash of air tanker fighting blaze near Yosemite National Park, Federal Aviation Administration says.


Rest In Peace

:(
 
Lightning

I fought wild fire on a ground crew for the Forrest Service in Idaho, and all of the fires were lightning strikes. We never had a human caused blaze.

And, I think the woman who started the Colorado fire was a Forrest Service employee, not a Park Service employee. May not sound like a big difference, but the two agencies are run pretty differently.

Either way, it's too bad that human lives were lost over trees (and maybe houses).
 
Marmaduke (and others),

I keep hearing people say that the wing was on fire and then folded up. Looks to me like the other way around, not that it makes much difference.
 

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