US Forest Service firefighter killed while battling blaze

A 21-year-old U.S. Forest Service firefighter from Shingle Springs, Calif., was killed Saturday after being struck by a falling tree as crews were mounting an assault on a small wildfire near Lake Tahoe, authorities said Sunday.

Dennis Murphy, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Nevada, welcomed the cancellation of the fuels reduction project in an old-growth forest about 8 miles southwest of the lake.

It happened about 5:30pm Saturday in a remote area between the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and the Eldorado National Forest near US 50 and Sierra-Tahoe Ski Resort.

The U.S. Forest Service is mourning the death of another firefighter killed on the fire lines in California. “The loss of any member of our Forest Service family is a tragedy”.

This undated photo released by the U.S. Forest Service shows firefighter Michael Hallenbeck.

On July 30, a firefighter was killed by a wildfire in the Modoc National Forest.

The Sierra Fire is one of several dozen lightning-caused fires that began on multiple National Forests in Northern California on Saturday.

He’d been on temporary assignment as an assistant fire management officer with the Big Valley Ranger District in California since mid June.

More than 10,000 firefighters have been dispatched to fight 20 wildfires burning in drought-stricken California.

Hundreds of people who fled their homes as the erratic Rocky fire consumed more than 70,000 acres have returned to their communities to find devastation in the blaze’s wake.

On Thursday, evacuation orders were lifted for 800 homes. The wildfire 100 miles north of San Francisco has destroyed 43 residences, 53 outbuildings and eight other structures. Almost 2,400 fire personnel have been battling the blaze.