Two pilots battling the massive Widemouth 2 Fire were killed when their helicopter crashed Friday in south-central Utah, officials confirmed Saturday evening.

And Sunday morning, Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Curtis described the frustration of first responders as they strived to reach the fallen helicopter soon after the crash.

Curtis said crews could see two columns of smoke Friday — one from the helicopter wreckage and another from the wildfire advancing toward them.

Within about 30 minutes, the flames had pushed so close to the responders that a wall of fire separated them from the crash site, Curtis said. The advancing fire, he added, forced crews to retreat, leaving them unable to reach the helicopter or determine the condition of the two pilots.

“If we had not moved some of our responders and the hand crews out, they would have been trapped by the fire as well,” Curtis said at a news conference Sunday morning. “It was not an easy choice, but … they were able to determine that if we had not done that, we would have lost more lives.”

On Saturday afternoon, rescuers were finally able to reach the crash site safely.

Law enforcement and fire departments then escorted the two “fallen heroes” from Richfield north to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Taylorsville.

The pilots were with Helicopter Transport Services, a company contracted by the U.S. Forest Service to provide aircraft for firefighting, the Forest Service said in a Saturday statement. Their families have been notified.

‘Their courage, service and sacrifice’

In a statement Saturday evening, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the two pilots “put themselves in harm’s way to protect our state and gave their lives in that service.”

“Our prayers are with their families and the entire wildland fire community,” Cox wrote in a post on social media. “Utah will never forget their courage, their service, and their sacrifice.”

(Video courtesy of Kayli Guild | Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands)

The Forest Service said the crash “is another reminder of the difficult work that wildland firefighters and support staff are asked to do.”

“We honor these firefighters by supporting those who remain on scene to fight this and other fires,” the agency wrote in a statement, “and by caring for those affected by this in any way.”

The Sikorsky S-64 copter crashed near Richfield in Sevier County around 10:40 a.m. on Friday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It was contracted by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Interagency Fire Center said.

Tony DeMasters with Great Basin Incident Management Team 2, which is leading the firefighting effort, said Saturday morning that crews initially could not determine the condition of the two people on board the helicopter because fire conditions prevented them from reaching the crash site.

The U.S. Forest Service said the crash sparked flames in the surrounding vegetation. As the blaze grew overnight to more than 111,000 acres, the flames spread around the crash site, putting it inside the fire’s perimeter, the agency said Saturday.

The National Interagency Fire Center reported Saturday morning that the two on the copter had died, but the Forest Service later said it had not yet confirmed their deaths as of 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The national center later removed its statement on the deaths.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. NTSB investigators are expected to arrive in Richfield on Saturday evening, an NTSB spokesperson said Saturday, but they won’t be able to reach the crash site until wildfire conditions are safe.

Widemouth 2 becomes Utah’s largest wildfire

The 111,000-acre-plus Widemouth 2 Fire has surpassed the Babylon Fire, which has burned more than 107,000 acres, as Utah’s largest wildfire of the year.

The blaze has spread rapidly across the Fishlake National Forest since igniting July 27, reaching areas near Kanosh, Fillmore and Meadow, as well as lands of the Kanosh Band of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.

The lightning-caused fire was 24% contained as of Saturday morning, fire officials said. A containment figure marks the percentage of a fire’s perimeter where crews feel confident that flames won’t cross.

On Saturday, officials said the blaze was spreading aggressively to the south and crews were working to stop the flames from jumping over I-70. The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office said Old Highway 4 is closed from the narrows to where the road meets I-70.

‘It’s angry, it’s mad’

“It’s angry, it’s mad, and it’s wanting to chew through that country on the south, southwest corner,” DeMasters said. “If I-70 does become impacted, we have some plans in place for either lane closures or completely shutting down I-70.”

Hours after the copter crash Friday, the FAA put out a notice restricting aircraft from flying near the fire. It took effect around 2 p.m. Friday and will remain in place through 10 p.m. Aug. 20 as crews continue battling the Widemouth 2 blaze.

Despite the crash, DeMasters said crews are not scaling back their use of air tankers or helicopters to fight the blaze. They have requested a replacement helicopter, he said, as well as additional aircraft to help with firefighting efforts.

As of Saturday, 632 people were working the fire, along with seven helicopters, 23 engines, nine dozers and nine water tenders.