Three firefighters lost their lives and two more were injured while responding to the Knowles and Gore fires located along the Colorado-Utah border on Saturday.
Among those who died was 27-year-old Nick Hutcherson of Glendale, Arizona.
The deaths of Hutcherson, 38-year-old Emily Barker, and 27-year-old Sydney Watson are under investigation.
They were assigned to a Helitack crew that can be dropped into remote areas by helicopters and whose mission is to prevent new fires from growing into out-of-control blazes. But it can be extremely dangerous, often taking place in areas where fires are rapidly expanding.
A press release from the Department of Interior on Sunday said they were involved in a burnover incident, which is when a fire overtakes firefighting personnel and equipment before crews can safely evacuate. Firefighters have to take shelter, often under emergency foil tents, as the fire passes through.
Federal officials say the five firefighters took emergency shelter but were eventually overcome, as the Snyder and Jones Fires merged with the Knowles and Gore Fires nearby.
Along with the three who died, two more firefighters are being treated for their injuries.
The news comes on the eve of the 13th anniversary of when 19 Arizona firefighters, known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots, lost their lives in a burnover event during the Yarnell Hill Fire. That day — June 30, 2013 — marked the greatest loss of firefighter life in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Like Saturday’s victims, the men killed in Arizona in June 2013 were members of a specialized firefighting crew who had tried to deploy emergency shelters meant to shield them from flames and heat.
The following year the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior rolled out new federal firefighting strategies, which included a mix of suppression and controlled burn tactics to better manage fuel growth.
Anticipating a highly active 2026 season, the U.S. Forest Service confirmed in April that all federal firefighters will instead follow a full suppression strategy.
Wildfires have erupted over the past week across the West, fueled by months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter in some places. Wildfire experts have been warning for months that extreme fire dangers are likely this summer.
With more than two dozen large fires burning across the U.S., almost 8,000 wildland firefighters and dozens of firefighting helicopters have been deployed. About half of the largest blazes are in Alaska while the rest are mostly in Western states.
So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 4,600 square miles — the most since 2022.
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