CALIENTE, Nev. (AP) — Both pilots were killed when two small air-tankers collided in mid-air in southeast Nevada while assisting in the attack on a fast-moving wildfire that has burned more than 20 square miles near the Utah line.
Recovery operations are underway but the pilots' names have not been released. They had been dropping retardant on the flames of the human-caused fire about 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas before they collided just before 1 p.m. Thursday about 17 miles southeast of Caliente.
More than 250 firefighters are continuing to battle the blaze Friday in extreme heat with high temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.