LOS ANGELES, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Two firefighters were killed Saturday in the U.S. state of Arizona in an operation to battle with a wildfire which was ignited by lightning Friday night and has burned down 300 acres (about 1.21 square km) so far.
The firefighters were killed in a plane crash while conducting aerial reconnaissance over the fire near the Prescott National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said in a statement.
"The accident occurred around noon today and involved an air attack aircraft performing aerial reconnaissance and command and control over the fire. Two crew members were on board and we are sad to report there were no survivors," interstate incident information system Inciweb said Saturday.
The tragedy came as wildfires raged through the western regions of the United States recently due to drought and high temperature.
In California, the Beckwourth Complex Fire, which occurred about 70 km north of Lake Tahoe, a famous vacation spot in the United States, showed no signs of slowing down after doubling in size between Friday and Saturday and jumping the state border into Nevada.
Temperatures in parts of California reached near-record highs with Death Valley hitting 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 degrees Celsius) Friday, just four degrees shy of a world record set in 1913. Enditem
