SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- A helicopter assigned to the largest wildfire in Montana crashed in a brushy ravine north of Yellowstone National Park on Friday, killing all three people aboard.
The chopper assigned to the 25,500-acre fire went down during a maintenance flight to check its condition, Columbia Helicopters spokesman Jon Lazzaretti said from company headquarters in suburban Portland, Ore.
Later Friday, a fire in northwestern Montana swept into Glacier National Park, increasing from 17,100 acres to 25,000 acres.
``It's kicking butt,'' fire spokesman Bob McKinney said. ``That's all you can say right now.''
The helicopter crash follows Monday's collision of two firefighting planes in Northern California that killed two pilots.
``Firefighting is a dangerous business,'' said Warren Bielenberg, information officer for the Montana fire. ``We've got 1,200 people involved with this thing. They've been here 10 days and there was one injury, before today.''
The Vertol 107, with a 44-foot fuselage and a rotor at each end, was among the largest of the 15 helicopters assigned to the blaze. The company said those killed in the crash were pilot Rich Hernandez, 37, co-pilot Santi Arovitx, 28, and crew chief Kip Krigbaum, 45.
The blaze was one of four major wildfires in the state Friday, including a the Glacier fire that forced some firefighters to be pulled off the lines for safety Thursday and Friday.
The blaze, started by lightning Aug. 14, has forced the evacuation of about a dozen homes in the sparsely populated area of northwestern Montana. The evacuation order remained in effect going into the Labor Day weekend.
At the Home Ranch Store near Polebridge, about two miles from the fire, manager Ed Crosby said business was slow for a holiday weekend.
``The only people here are firefighters, getting diesel or some sodas,'' Crosby said.
Nationally, some 19,000 firefighters faced 22 major fires Friday, burning on more than 222,000 acres.
However, the National Interagency Fire Center said several major fires were nearly contained, including the California fire that once threatened the small mining town of Weaverville.
In Arizona, crews were monitoring five lightning-caused wildfires that have burned more than 1,200 acres around the Grand Canyon. National Park Service officials said they considered the fires beneficial to the forest and were letting them burn.
