MERLIN — Firefighter families are mourning today after two companies based in this small rural community long involved in battling wildfires read off the names of their dead from a helicopter crash that killed nine in Northern California.

Seven were firefighters from Grayback Forestry, which has mustered contract firefighting crews since 1979, and an eighth was a pilot for Carson Helicopters, which has specially modified heavy lift helicopters and sent them to battle wildfires for 25 years.

In far northeast Oregon, Christine Schwanenberg of Lostine said her husband, Roark, 54, “lived and breathed” his work as a pilot fighting wildland fires.

“He felt responsible for making a difference in this world,” she said. He used humor to help turn around tough situations among fire crews, and “if they were having a tough day he was the one to step up to the plate.”

Roark was listed as pilot of the Sikorsky S-61N specially modified Fire Chief helicopter that crashed in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on Tuesday night, getting only about 150 yards into a flight to ferry a crew back to camp after a hard day on the fire lines.

The co-pilot, William Coultas of Cave Junction survived with serious injuries. He and his wife own a video and electronics store there.

One of the Grayback crew was David Steele, 19, of Ashland. He had wanted to be a firefighter for years, his father, Paul Steele said. The former varsity football player at Ashland High School was saving to attend Central Oregon Community College in Bend to be a firefighter and emergency medical technician. He used to ride along with Ashland firefighters to get a closer look at the career he sought.

“You just can’t describe how it feels,” Paul Steele said. “It empties the heart.” He said the family will remember him as a hero. “He died doing what he wanted to do, and protecting others.”

Though Grayback has headquarters in Merlin, it has bases around Oregon, and 10 of the 11 firefighters in the crash were from its base in White City. Of those, six were identified as among the dead. The company said it was trying to reach relatives of a seventh who died. Three of the crew survived with burns and other injuries.

The ninth to die was a U.S. Forest Service employee who was not identified, but described as a pilot inspector.

They had been fighting the Buckhorn fire, part of the Iron Complex on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest outside Redding, Calif., and were headed back to camp at the end of the day when the helicopter they were in suddenly went down on a hillside, rolled and burst into flames.

The pilots had spent the afternoon dropping water on the fire, and were making their third trip of the evening to ferry firefighters back to camp, said Andy Mills, director of helicopter operations for Carson Helicopters, which has a base at the Grants Pass Airport in Merlin not far from the headquarters of Grayback.

“They loaded up the team,” Mills told a press conference. “They lifted off from the helipad. They went forward a slight bit. Then the aircraft rapidly descended and hit the hillside,” about 1,000 feet below the helipad, rolled and caught fire.

“The aircraft was in what they call translational lift, meaning it had lifted off and was headed out of the helipad and then it went down. It was just a matter of seconds after it took off. I don’t know yet exactly how quick the fire started, but had to be very, very quickly.”

Two other Carson helicopters flying in the vicinity were called in and dumped water to quell the blaze, but magnesium components in the wreckage made it impossible to put out without special equipment, Mills said.

More than 20 other firefighters waiting for their own turn to fly back to fire camp witnessed the crash, and later mounted a search to make sure no survivors had wandered off, Mills added. After the crash they had no way back to camp, and hiked to another helipad for the night.

Mills said they were at a loss to explain the crash. Visibility was good, there was no wind, the pilots were very experienced, and reported the helicopter was flying well.

“This is a devastating blow for us,” said Mills. “We are not a huge company. This has had a very severe impact on us. We know between the Grayback people on the aircraft and our company it’s been a huge blow to Southern Oregon and I know it’s been a huge blow to the firefighting community.”

At the Rural/Metro Fire Department station serving Merlin, division chief Austin Prince stepped outside to straighten the flag, which had been lowered to half staff in commemoration of the deaths.

“because its such a small community and we are well aware of who they are, definitely it has had quite an impact on us professionally and personally,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Joseph Frazier, Tim Fought and Julia Silverman in Portland and photographer Don Ryan in Merlin contributed to this report.