{"id":219865,"date":"2026-08-08T07:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/helicopter-fighting-utah-wildfire-crashes-with-two-people-onboard-officials-say-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:54:22","slug":"helicopter-fighting-utah-wildfire-crashes-with-two-people-onboard-officials-say-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/helicopter-fighting-utah-wildfire-crashes-with-two-people-onboard-officials-say-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Helicopter fighting Utah wildfire crashes with two people onboard, officials say – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rescuers not yet able to reach scene of crash near Richfield in central Utah, prompting fears for two missing people
A firefighting Sikorsky S64 helicopter with two individuals onboard crashed on Friday morning in a remote area of central Utah<\/a>, according to federal aviation authorities.
The US Forest Service initially declined to comment on the condition of the helicopter\u2019s passengers, asking the public for \u201cpatience while we focus on response efforts\u201d in a statement<\/a>.
Emergency personnel are responding near Richfield,about 160 miles south of Salt Lake City, an agency spokesperson told the Guardian by email.
The exact circumstances surrounding the crash are unknown.
At a media briefing<\/a> on Friday evening, Tyler Hecht, deputy incident commander with Great Basin incident management team, described the terrain as \u201cvery difficult\u201d, and said rescuers \u201chave not reached the scene of the accident\u201d in part because the helicopter crash had started a new fire.
Asked about the morale of the firefighters battling to control the blaze, Hecht said it was \u201cvery somber with what\u2019s going on. You know, they did take a tactical pause, regrouped, and they\u2019re back fighting fire.\u201d
The aircraft was in the vicinity of the Widemouth 2 fire<\/a>, a blaze sparked by lightning that has raced through 105,000 acres since it began on 27 July. As of Friday morning, the fire was 19% contained with 632 personnel assigned to suppressing it, and seven helicopters were dropping retardant and water on the flames the US Forest Service said.
The Widemouth 2 fire is one of eight large fires burning across Utah, which cumulatively have swept through more than 331,000 acres, according to state data<\/a>.
\u201cWildland firefighting is among the most dangerous jobs in the world,\u201d Utah governor Spencer Cox wrote in a social media post<\/a>. \u201cToday is a painful reminder of the extraordinary risks these brave men and women accept to protect us.\u201d
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the crash.
NTSB investigators are set to reach Richfield by Saturday evening, the agency said in a statement. Investigators expect to wait for fire conditions to subside to a safe level that will permit them to travel to the crash site and retrieve the aircraft.
The crash comes amid a deadly wildfire season for the western US. Three firefighters were killed<\/a> in June as they battled a blaze along the Colorado-Utah border.
In late June, Jamie Barnes, the director of Utah\u2019s division of forestry, described the fires as unlike anything in recent memory.
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing fires spread farther and faster under conditions that defy historical expectations. Some of the fires we\u2019ve responded to this year are behaving in ways veteran firefighters simply haven\u2019t seen before,\u201d Barnes said.
\u201cOur firefighters have been working around the clock, our resources are stretched, and we cannot afford preventable ignitions during the days ahead,\u201d he added, referring to statewide firework restrictions.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rescuers not yet able to reach scene of crash near Richfield in central Utah, prompting fears for two missing peopleA firefighting Sikorsky S64 helicopter with two individuals onboard crashed on Friday morning in a remote area of central Utah, according to federal aviation authorities.The US Forest Service initially declined to comment on the condition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}