Utah wildfire blocks access to fatal helicopter crash site

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 9, 2026 04:06 IST

A large wildfire in Utah stopped emergency responders from safely reaching the site of a helicopter crash on Saturday, while other fires continued to burn across western US states, including one that shut part of Mount Rainier Park in Washington state.

The helicopter crashed on Friday morning in Utah's Fishlake Forest, starting a new fire that joined an existing blaze. Officials said they were not sending more teams to the area until the fire came under better control, even as another agency said the two people on board were fatally injured.

The crash involved a Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter. The fire linked to the crash has now scorched nearly 174 square miles, or nearly 451 square kilometres. Fire officials said on Saturday afternoon that they had decided not to put more lives at risk and had therefore not been able to confirm the condition of the two people aboard the helicopter.

The Interagency Fire Center said the pilot and crew member were fatally injured in the crash, but it did not immediately respond to questions about the source of that information. "The site is now inside the fire perimeter itself," the fire incident management team said on Saturday afternoon.

The Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash once its team can examine the wreckage. Officials urged the public not to speculate or spread rumours about the cause at this stage, saying it would likely take the NTSB a year or more to determine that.

In Washington state, the Park Service closed access to the Sunrise and White River areas of Mount Rainier Park after a new wildfire burned less than a third of a square mile, or less than a square kilometre. Firefighters were working on Saturday to bring that fire under control.

Elsewhere, the larger fires near Spokane have burned more than 15.63 square miles, or over 40 square kilometres. Firefighters have built more than 75 miles, or over 120 kilometres, of containment line to help control those flames.

Overall, officials in the western US were dealing with multiple fires on Saturday, with the Utah blaze preventing access to a helicopter crash site, a new fire affecting parts of Mount Rainier Park, and larger fires near Spokane continuing to spread as crews worked to contain them.

With PTI Inputs

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