A fleet of firefighting air tankers, a key force in squelching the Colorado wildfires, has been grounded after one of them crashes, possibly killing all four aboard. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Four of the six crew members aboard a firefighting C-130 that crashed on July 1 are dead, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Tuesday. The military, meanwhile, announced that six other Air Force air tankers that were grounded on Monday as a result of the crash were authorized to return to duty on Tuesday.
"The firefighting community extends its condolences to the families and friends of the deceased," the center said in its morning update of the nation's wildfire status.
Two survivors were seriously hurt and taken to a hospital in Rapid City, S.D., NBC affiliate WCNC-TV reported.?
When a disaster strikes, the Red Cross breaks out a special tool to help catalog the damage and share information between the local police, fire departments and the national organization.
Meanwhile, firefighters grappling with the two most destructive wildfires on record in Colorado reported progress, but steeled themselves for a long season.
The fires, which left a haze of smoke over the state's urban corridors, displaced tens of thousands of people and left vast swathes of forest a blackened wasteland in addition to charring more than 600 homes.
T-shirts sold as fundraiser for Colorado fire victims
"I don't think we've seen a fire season like this in the history of Colorado," Gov. John Hickenlooper said last week after surveying the destruction wrought by the Waldo Canyon Fire west of Colorado Springs.
The C-130 from an Air National Guard wing based in Charlotte, N.C., was fighting a 6.5-square-mile blaze in the Black Hills of South Dakota when it crashed Sunday evening.
President Barack Obama offered thoughts and prayers to the crew and their families. "The men and women battling these terrible fires across the West put their lives on the line every day for their fellow Americans," he said in a statement Monday.
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The worst fire season in recent history is taking its toll with large fires burning thousands of acres in Colorado while others consume areas in Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.
The military put the remaining seven firefighting C-130s on an "operational hold," leaving just 14 federally contracted heavy tankers in use on Monday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Northern Command stated that six of the aircraft would be back in the air after a one-day suspension "to review flying and safety procedures." The seventh, from the same base as the C-130 that crashed, was to return home.
Obama last month signed a bill hastening the addition of seven large tanker planes to the nation's rundown aerial firefighting fleet, at a cost of $24 million, but the first planes won't be available until mid-August.
C-130 air tankers have crashed on firefighting duty before. In 2002, a privately owned civilian version of an older-model C-130 crashed in California, killing three crew members. The plane broke up in flight and an investigation blamed fatigue cracks in the wings.
The crash, in part, prompted a review of the airworthiness of large U.S. air tankers and led ultimately to a greatly reduced fleet of large civilian tanker planes. The 44 planes in the fleet a decade ago has dwindled to nine being flown on U.S. Forest Service exclusive use contracts right now.
Jeremy Fleischer tells the story of how his family escaped the wildfires near Colorado Springs.
Another aerial firefighting plane, the Lockheed P2V, has had some problems in recent months. One crashed in Utah, killing the two pilots, and another one crash-landed in Nevada.?
Mike Ferris, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center, said there are still adequate resources to combat wildfires across the country as fire managers move equipment and manpower from areas with little fire activity to states that need them.
"But if we continue to get new (fire) starts, then things can get a little more complex," he said.
At the Waldo Canyon Fire, fewer than 3,000 residents who were forced to flee their homes remained under evacuation orders, city officials said, adding that crews were slowly restoring utility services to the affected areas.
Volunteers from the American Red Cross explain what goes into the relief effort around the wildfires at Colorado Springs.
When 65 mile-an-hour winds blew flames across several ridgelines and threatened populated neighborhoods last Tuesday, more than 30,000 people were ordered to flee the inferno.
Colorado wildlife relief beginning of the long haul
Most of the remaining displaced residents live in the Mountain Shadows subdivision, a tightly clustered neighborhood of upscale homes in the bluffs on Colorado Spring's western edge where the bulk of property losses occurred.
The remains of two people were found last week in a burned-out house in Mountain Shadows, bringing to six the number of people who have died in Colorado wildfires this year. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Among the major fires burning in the West on Monday:
- Colorado: The 28-square-mile Waldo Canyon Fire was 70 percent contained. The fire destroyed nearly 350 homes.
- Utah: Two new wildfires broke out on national forest lands, one caused by target shooting, authorities said. In southern Utah, evacuations were ordered as the 500-acre Shingle fire threatened about 100 cabins.
- Montana: The 290-square mile Ash Creek Fire jumped a state highway early Monday, triggering evacuations.
- Wyoming: Three large forest fires continued to spread as crews faced erratic winds and explosive fuel conditions.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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