STATEMENT ON MOUNT GORDO WILDFIRE INCIDENT
 

Union Road, San Chianski Mountain Range - At 21:55, SAN FIRE Main Control received an interdepartmental request from the Los Santos Fire Department about ongoing fire suppression efforts of a sizeable Wildfire, south west of Mount Gordo. Units responded and the first unit arrived at approximately 22:02 with firefighters actively working on containment.

Due to weather conditions of thick fog as forecast by the National Weather Service (NWS) for Mount Gordo and heavy smoke from the fire, an attempt to use aviation assets to gauge the initial size of the incident was unsuccessful - initial assessment was done on foot and post-incident damage assessments will continue for several days.

Knockdown was confirmed by the Los Santos Fire Department at approximately 23:07. The scene was handed over to Deputy Fire Marshals and the San Andreas Air Administration Investigators after mop up.

At this time we can confirm the cause of the fire was the rupture of fuel tanks aboard the aircraft with the fuel igniting by the heat generated by the twin engines and electric components of the aircraft. A mix of the aviation fuel, dry vegetation due to recent drought conditions and coastal location contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. However, preliminary investigation has concluded that there is no signs of pre-existing fire activity so at this stage it is believed the high impact of a collision with the aircraft was the cause.

Sadly at this time, with the coroners office, we can confirm two casualties of the pilot and co-pilot have resulted from this incident and our thoughts go out to their families and loved ones at this difficult time.

We'd like to thank our colleagues of the Los Santos Fire Department, San Andreas Air Administration and Pillbox's Forensic Medicine & Pathology for their co-operation.


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