A single-pilot tanker plane that went missing on Thursday while fighting one of the many wildfires ablaze in Oregon has been found, and the pilot is dead, authorities said Friday.
The aircraft was located Friday morning and the death confirmed, according to Lisa Clark, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management information officer, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
The BLM-contracted plane went missing Thursday evening in eastern Oregon while fighting the Falls Fire, on the edge of the Malheur National Forest.
The Falls Fire, believed to be human-caused and currently under investigation, was sparked on July 10. Since then, it has expanded to 141,927 acres and is currently 55 percent contained, according to a Friday afternoon update. A total of 38 hand crews, 79 engines, 24 bulldozers, and 25 water tenders have been assigned to the fire.
Newsweek reached out to the Falls Fire emergency team, Oregon National Guard, and BLM press team via email for comment on Friday afternoon.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden reposted a local news alert about the incident on X, formerly Twitter, with the caption: “The dangers of fighting fires are constant and this developing news story from Eastern Oregon is a painful reminder of that fact. Let’s all take a moment to think about the people in this air tanker and hope for a positive outcome.”
Current U.S. Wildfires
Elsewhere, the state has dozens of active fires, with the Durkee Fire as the biggest in the nation, at 288,690 acres as of Friday afternoon. Ignited by a lightning strike on July 17, it has burned swathes of eastern Oregon and is 20 percent contained. The blaze is near the Oregon-Idaho state line, close to Interstate 84. The Oregon Department of Transportation posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the highway reopened on Thursday.
Currently in peak fire season, the U.S. has 111 large active wildfires, with only one contained, according to the Department of the Interior’s National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) latest update on Friday. The fires have burned more than 1,820,955 acres across multiple states, nearly half a million more acres than yesterday.
NIFC told Newsweek in an email yesterday: “We are in the midst of a very active fire year. In the past twenty years, this is one of only four times that we have gone to a national preparedness level of 5 (indicating the highest level of activity and the most demand for firefighting resources) in July.”
Meanwhile, fires blaze across the northwest, with the new Park Fire in California’s Butte County started on July 24 already surpassing 164,286 acres.
Yesterday, the Butte Attorney General’s office released a statement that 42-year-old Ronnie Dean Stout II of Chico was arrested early Thursday morning “by Cal Fire arson investigators, assisted by District Attorney investigators on suspicion of starting the Park Fire.”
He will be charged with arson after he pushed a car that was ablaze into a gully yesterday afternoon. The car went down the embankment and then spread “flames that caused the Park Fire.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
