Firefighters mourn loss of aircrew

Firefighters are mourning the loss of three air tanker crew members who were killed in a crash Monday evening after taking off from their base in Stead.

"There are lots of grieving people, grieving firefighters and the families of the crew members," Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Spokeswoman Marne Bonesteel said Tuesday. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the rest of the firefighting community. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Forest Service Aviation Safety Board are starting their investigation today."

Bonesteel said the P2V fire tanker had dropped one load on the 204-acre Burnside fire in Hope Valley on Monday morning and had been called to a second fire burning in California.

The names of the victims are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

She said the call was canceled right about the same time the tanker crashed at 6:09 p.m. Monday.

City of Reno spokesman Steve Frady said Reno firefighters responded to a brush fire set by the crash, which was quickly extinguished. The debris field from the crash covered about 5 acres. The brush fire was contained to 1.5 acres.

"Airport authority officials told me it was fully loaded with fuel and fire retardant," he said. "Minden dispatch advised it had about 2,070 gallons of retardant."

Washoe County Sheriff's deputies are securing the scene of the accident for the National Transportation Safety Board.

"We're waiting for the NTSB to do their investigation, then we do the investigation on the deaths," Washoe County Sheriff's Office information officer Brooke Keast said.

Minden Air Chief Executive Officer Leonard Parker said he knew the pilot of the downed tanker.

"The guy flying the thing was a consummate professional, so it's hard to figure out what happened," he said. "The airplanes are up to the task, but often they fly so low to the ground that there's not a lot of time to recover."

Firefighters expect to have a line completely around the Burnside fire by 6 p.m. Friday.

The Burnside fire has been burning since Sunday afternoon, and forced the evacuation of Labor Day vacationers from resorts, campgrounds and homes in Hope Valley.

Evacuations were lifted on Monday morning and Sorensen's reopened at 10 a.m.

"The wind is in our favor," Sorensen's innkeeper John Brissenden told a Tahoe Daily Tribune reporter on Monday morning. "Because of the wonderful crews, at the moment we're allowed to reopen."

It has been six years since Minden pilot Steve Wass died in June 2002 with two crew members in a C-130 tanker crash near Walker, Calif. Large air tankers were grounded for several years after the crash.

Bonesteel said much of the smoke is from the burning of heavy fuels inside the interior of the fire.

Firefighters are expecting warmer temperatures and a shift in the wind today.