AP Photo Carson Helicopter's Inc. director of operations, Andy Mills, takes a moment to compose himself during a press conference in Merlin on Thursday. A 2006 Coquille high school graduate, Edrick Gomez, was aboard the Carson helicopter that crashed Tuesday night while transporting fire fighters in northern California. Gomez was presumed to have died in the crash.

A graduate of Coquille High School, former altar boy and son of a local family is among seven missing firefighters from a helicopter crash Tuesday in a remote Northern California forest.

Edrik Gomez, 19, hasn’t been seen since that day when he and 10 other firefighters from Grayback Forestry, flown by two helicopter crewmen, were picked up by a Sikorsky S-61N chopper for a break from fighting a wildfire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The helicopter then crashed for unknown reasons.

Firefighters were able to pull four survivors from the burning wreckage.

Representatives from the Merlin-based firefighting contractor and the U.S. Forest Service notified the Ashland resident’s parents that he had not been found. On Thursday, a company press release stated the seven missing firefighters and two other people are presumed to have perished in the crash. Grayback spokeswoman Kelli Matthews said Gomez was a new hire for the company, having joined in June for the fire season.

The third of four sons born to Juanita and Efrain Gomez of Coquille, Edrik and his family have been members of the Holy Name Catholic Church parish since 1994, said the Rev. John McGuire. The young man and his three brothers all volunteered as altar servers, he added.

“They are a very good family, a very close family,” McGuire said.

One of Gomez’s brothers demurred from commenting on Thursday.

Frank R. Hladky, a Coquille High School Science teacher who taught Gomez in his senior and junior years, said although he hadn’t been aware of young man’s summer job, he wasn’t surprised he’d chosen it. Gomez — one of his top geology students — was interested in working outdoors.

“He definitely liked the outdoors,” Hladky said. “He was adventurous. He wasn’t particularly afraid to take risks.”

The 2006 Coquille graduate went on to study communications and political science at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and earned Reitman scholarships three years in a row, Hladky said. The educator said he kept in touch with his former student, who was involved in a beekeepers club and the Latino Student Union at the university.

While Hladky easily recalled Gomez’s strong work ethic and efforts in class, he more fondly remembers his student’s quirky sense of humor, interest in politics and light-hearted teasing.

“He always told me I was a communist. Of course I’m not.  It was a joke,” Hladky said. “It would be like, ‘OK, where did that come from?’ And he’d be smiling about that.”

Gomez also gave him a book about revolutionary leaders including Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Poncho Villa.

“He’s just a real outgoing and personable young man,” he said.

Gomez would sit at the front of class, and often teased classmates.

“He always had a grin. He always came in smiling,” Hladky said. “(But) he didn’t just joke around, he actually worked.”

Gomez’s loss represents the third for Coquille High School this year, said principal Sharon Nelson. Clay Rose, 15, died in March and 18-year-old Brian C. Jacobs was killed in an April ATV crash.

“My heart just breaks. I’m just so in shock,” Nelson said Thursday.

She didn’t know Gomez well, but had experience with his younger brother and described the Gomezes as a fine family.

“They’re very good at what they did in raising their sons to be just absolutely marvelous individuals,” she said. “It’s just a tragic loss for us all. My heart grieves for the family and all of the friends he’s going to be leaving behind.”