The single-engine tanker was taking off to douse an 80-acre brush fire 30 miles north of St. George when unstable air currents forced it to bank and lose altitude, Color Country Fire Management spokesman David Boyd said.
The Bureau of Land Management is investigating the mishap, the agency's Utah fire management officer Sheldon Wimmer said Sunday. He said the tanker, owned by New Frontiers of Livingston, Mont., may have hit a downdraft when it flew off a cliff at the end of a runway at the St. George airport.
The tanker dipped to 150 feet when pilot dumped the fertilizer-based slurry over nine houses in Bloomington Hills, a neighborhood that sits below the mesa-top airport, he said.
``It looked like something right out of Dr. Seuss,'' Graff Harlan said of his cactus garden turned pink. ``Turned my pool table pink. I'm surprised it came off the white paint on my truck.''
Fire crews were still washing houses and lawns Friday, a day after the accident.
``The back yard looked like Pepto Bismol was everywhere,'' said Skylar Yates, who said the spray also plastered her house and got into the open windows of her blue Saturn sedan.
Even her border collie, Sissy, was doused pink. The collie was given a bath.
Boyd said Color Country Fire Management will work with insurance adjusters to compensate for any damages. Harlan said a high-pressure hose left a crack on the hood of his Dodge Durango.
Farmers Insurance Group agent Leon K. Maxwell said he believed damage to homes from falling objects, even slurry, was covered under most homeowner policies.
New Frontiers is under contract with the BLM to fight fires in northern Arizona.
