Posted on 09/02/2002 8:40:15 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
LYTLE CREEK — Arson investigators found a man’s charred body near the start of a 350-acre wildfire while a helicopter pilot battling the blaze crashed into a dry creek Friday morning.
Firefighters had the Lytle Fire 10 percent contained by late Friday afternoon and estimated they would have it completely contained by Tuesday. Fighting the fire were 582 firefighters, 25 engines and five helicopters.
The fire remained about four miles southeast of Wrightwood in the Lytle Creek Canyon. The fire was threatening the Mount Baldy Ski area and the Cucagmonga and Sheep Mountain wilderness areas, according to Karen McKinley, fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service.
The odd twists to the wildfire began about 6:15 a.m. when San Bernardino County Sheriff’s arson investigators found a burned body near where the blaze stared about 5:35 p.m. Thursday in Lytle Creek.
They suspect the man was a 70-year-old Chino Hills resident, but the body was so badly burned they must check dental records to confirm his identity, coroner’s officials said.
Investigators don’t know if the man’s death or a vehicle found nearby are related to the fire. They also haven’t concluded what ignited the blaze.
About 10:15 a.m., a water-dropping helicopter crashed into a dry creek near Green Mountain Ranch on Lytle Creek Road.
The pilot was able to land the helicopter upright, but some of the rotor blades broke in the crash, said Raymond Gomez, who saw the helicopter go down.
“You could almost hear the turbine bogging down,” he said. “Once he started coming down, he came down really quick.”
U.S. Forest Service Fire Information Officer Karen McKinley said hydraulic problems may have caused the helicopter to go down.
The pilot walked away from the crash uninjured.
The Forest Service grounded all aircraft battling the fire for a short time after the crash, but four airtankers and five helicopters were back at work by Friday afternoon.
Before the helicopter crashed, a water tender — a fire vehicle that hauls water — spilled gasoline, prompting a hazardous materials incident in the burned area, Forest Service Spokeswoman Ruth Wenstrom said.
It was unclear what caused the fuel spill, she said.
“It is unusual for this many things to be going on during a fire,” Wenstrom said.
The fire burned in an unpopulated area among heavy timber and steep terrain as ashes from the blaze rained down on West Cajon Valley.
“We don’t have any evacuations or any structures threatened at this time,” McKinley said.
McKinley said firefighters hoped to stop the fire’s northward progression at Stockton Flat Road, a dirt road that cuts through the forest.
McKinley said it’s impossible to say if the wildfire will affect tourism in the San Bernardino National Forest this Labor Day weekend.
“A lot of times smoke doesn’t keep people away,” she said.
Scott Vanhorne can be reached at scott_vanhorne@link.freedom.com or at 951-6276.
Damn, beat me to it. :)
There's been too many fires for this season to be in any way normal, and we know that some of them have been set. Suppose this guy caught an arsonist red-handed.....
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