Utah Wildfire Blocks Access to Helicopter Crash Site

Firefighters in Utah are being forced to wait before they can reach the site of a helicopter crash that occurred on Friday morning in Fishlake National Forest. The Sikorsky Skycrane went down in a remote area, and the impact sparked a new fire that has since merged with an existing blaze, which has now consumed nearly 174 square miles of land.

Incident commanders said on Saturday afternoon that they have decided against sending crews into the area until the fire is brought under greater control. The crash site is now located within the fire's perimeter, making it too dangerous to approach. As a result, officials have not been able to confirm the condition of the two people who were aboard the helicopter at the time of the crash.

The National Interagency Fire Center has reported that the pilot and a crewmember suffered fatal injuries in the incident, though the source of that information has not been clarified. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead an investigation into the cause of the crash once it is safe for investigators to access the wreckage. Officials are urging the public to avoid speculation about what happened, noting that a full determination could take a year or more.

Meanwhile, in Washington state, a new wildfire has forced the closure of the Sunrise and White River areas of Mount Rainier National Park. That fire has burned less than a third of a square mile so far, and crews are working to contain it. Elsewhere in the state, larger fires near Spokane have scorched more than 15.63 square miles, though firefighters have built over 75 miles of containment lines to help slow their spread.