Yesterday when I was at the fire, I turned around, saw the smoke coming up from a nearby hillside. I pointed to the guys on the ground then ran, jumped in my car went to go check it out and had heard the reports of it possibly being a helicopter crash. Everything happened so fast I immediately saw the crane sitting in a field and thought it looks fine. Maybe somebody called it in as a helicopter crash because they saw the crane there. I went about my way was filming. Talk to a few people I knew, got dropped on almost immediately after arriving, and as I’m filming some fed guys getting off their engine  I see the helicopter in the background. After I backed out and took to social media to post my usual fire content, I noticed the helicopter wasn’t a usual firefighting Helo and really didn’t understand quite yet the magnitude of what was about to happen.
One of my Chief friends pulled in. Normally he stops, talks to me  and we shoot the shit for a few but this time he looked at me with a face I’ll never forget, and kept going. My stomach dropped and it was at that moment I knew something was wrong. If he was there it wasn’t good. Shortly after that news of it being Cal Fire people got out, and then shortly after that who was actually on the helicopter came out. This has been really hard because I knew them both and worked with them like many. I have never been affected this hard by some thing like this in all the years I’ve been doing it.
I know there is a lot of people that are not OK right now and I am so sorry. I had no words yesterday. Today isn’t much better. I am here for anyone if they need to talk. My deepest condolences to their families. May the rest in peace.