Video: Nine presumed dead in California helicopter crash

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SAN FRANCISCO - Eight firefighters and a pilot are presumed dead in the crash of the Oregon-based chopper that had just picked up workers battling a blaze in a Northern California forest.

The helicopter had lifted off from a clearing in a remote, rugged region of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, said Jennifer Rabuck, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

The aircraft was carrying 11 firefighters and two crew members when it went down Tuesday night in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The helicopter was owned by Carson Helicopters, whose firefighting operations are based in Grants Pass, Ore.

The Forest Service said four people were taken to the hospital with severe burns. Three of them work for Grayback Forestry, a private firefighting contractor in Merlin, Ore.

Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18, were transported to the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Rick Schoeder, 42, was admitted to Mercy Medical Center in Redding.

Carson Helicopters

The Carson Helicopter Sikorsky S-61 was carrying 11 firefighters and two crew members when it went down.

FAA spokesman Gregor said the Sikorsky S-61 chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing "under unknown circumstances" in a remote mountain location. FAA and NTSB investigators were headed to the scene, about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Firefighters who were waiting to be picked up helped rescue the injured after the helicopter crashed around 7:30 p.m. and caught fire, Rabuck said. About three dozen firefighters had to spend the night on the mountain because it became too dark for other helicopters to land, she said.

Nine people -- a co-pilot and eight firefighters -- were still missing in the wreckage and presumed killed. Recovery efforts have been complicated by the remote location, and the wreckage is still burning, Rabuck said.

"It's difficult to access," she said. "It's very remote, very steep and heavily forested."

The firefighters had been working at the north end of a more than 27-square-mile fire burning in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, part of a larger complex of blazes that total 135 square miles. The complex of fires in the Shasta-Trinity forest was about 87 percent contained.

Bob Madden, director of corporate affairs at Carson Helicopters, said a ll 12 of the company's helicopters are being used for firefighting in Oregon and California.

Madden said the helicopter's two co-pilots were Carson employees -- one was hospitalized and the other was among the missing. The company would not release their names until officials confirmed their identities and notified family members.

Before Tuesday's crash, two firefighters form the Northwest had been killed while on duty in California this year. Port Townsend firefighter Andy Palmer, also assigned to battle the Shasta-Trinity blaze, was killed late last month by a falling tree.

Chief Dan Packer of East Pierce Fire and Rescue was killed July 26 in Siskiyou County when he was burned while scouting a fire.