Saturday brought tragic news from Utah as authorities confirmed the deaths of two helicopter pilots involved in wildfire operations.
The incident claimed the lives of these heroic pilots when their Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter crashed on Friday morning, as reported by the Sevier County Sheriff.
These pilots were bravely engaged in battling a blaze within the sprawling Fishlake National Forest.
Their helicopter crash ignited yet another fire, which merged with the original inferno to devastate nearly 174 square miles.
While the pilots’ identities remain undisclosed, officials noted their employment with Helicopter Transport Services, a company contracted by the US Forest Service for this perilous task.
Initially officials said they were unable to reach the crash site because of the fire.
Then, on Saturday, crews were able to enter the area and confirmed the deaths, according to the Sevier County sheriff and coroner.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate once its team can examine the wreckage. It will likely take the NTSB a year or more to determine the cause.
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.