A single-engine, turboprop firefighting plane crashed near Fort Carson, killing the pilot, Gert Marais, 42, of Fort Benton, Mont., Fort Carson spokesman Maj. Sean Ryan said.
Gert Marais worked for Aero Applicators a Sterling, Colorado crop dusting company that supplies aerial firefighting services to the Colorado State Forest Service, Ryan said.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.
Gert Marais was battling the Fort Carson wildfire that as burned 9,600 acres -- about 15 square miles -- and forced the evacuation of at least a 150 people living near the Army base.
UPI - FORT CARSON, Colo., April 16 (UPI) -- A pilot was killed Tuesday evening when his firefighting plane crashed and two other people died in wildfires plaguing Colorado, authorities said.
"He dumped his slurry and they say that it looked like it pulled up and then it just nosedived into the ground," El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said of the pilot who died helping put out a blaze at Fort Carson.
The crash occurred near Highway 115 south of Colorado Springs. The pilot's name hadn't been released but the single-engine aircraft was registered to Aero Applicators of Sterling, which was working under contract with the state forest service, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
Update: Including this SEAT pilot this would indicate at least three Colorado firefighters have died fighting these massive wind driven wildfires
Firefighting Aircraft Pilot dies at wildfire -Plane crashes while fighting Fort Carson blaze
The plane was involved in fighting a large wildfire near Fort Carson Colorado and crashed , killing the firefighting plane pilot. The pilot was the only person on board the airplane.
The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center did not know where the plane was dispatched from Tuesday night.
The single engine air tanker crashed at about 1815 hours just east of Fort Carson. The name of the pilot and the circumstances surrounding his death have not been released. Visibility was low in the area because of the heavy smoke as Firefighters are battling a 2,000-acre fire in the area.
The Fort Carson fire was one of three major fires Tuesday afternoon in Colorado, which saw a wetter than normal winter that was followed by a dry March. A storm moving into the state was expected to bring rain and snow.
Three Firefighters dead in Colorado Wildfires -Thousands of acres burning at least four homes destroyed
The wildfire at Fort Carson burned more than 2,000 acres and forced a lockdown of the gates to the Army post near Colorado Springs and Also, a wind-driven wildfire prompted authorities to evacuate all 1,100 residents from the southeastern Colorado town of Ordway, 120 miles southeast of Denver on Tuesday where three people have died in the wildland fires.
The blaze near Ordway broke out just after 2 p.m. and had grown to about 6,500 acres, acting fire information officer Chris Sorensen said at 6:30.
The fire had reached four buildings in town and as many as 16 structures nearby, but the extent of the damage was unknown, Sorensen said.
A dispatcher in the Crowley County Sheriff's Office said earlier there were reports of as many as a half-dozen buildings on fire in Ordway, including "two or three barn fires" and "two or three house fires."
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