A Utah firefighter was killed while battling the Mendocino Complex fire when the force of a retardant drop from an air tanker knocked a nearly 90-foot Douglas fir on top of him.
A report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection outlines the incident last month that killed Battalion Chief Matthew Burchett, of the Draper City Fire Department, while assigned to the largest fire in California modern history.
Burchett, 42, was killed and three other firefighters — two fire captains from his Utah crew, and a fire apparatus engineer from another group from Kings County — were injured.
Burchett, a firefighter for 20 years, arrived Aug. 2 with his crew to battle the Mendocino Complex fire.
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