COQUILLE — Family, friends and firefighters gathered at Holy Name Catholic Church in Coquille on Sunday to remember Edrik Gomez, the former Coquille student killed in a helicopter crash last week in California.

Among the mourners who filled the church for the funeral Mass were firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Coos Forest Protective Association and several South Coast fire departments.

Gomez, a 2006 graduate of Coquille High School, was among nine people — including seven firefighters — killed last Tuesday when a helicopter crashed shortly after taking off to return to camp in Northern California. The firefighters, employed by Merlin-based Grayback Forestry Inc., were battling a fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California.

During the service, Gomez’s three brothers spoke about his passion for politics, his love of Latin American history and the way his personality brought cheer to everybody he met.

Gomez and two of his brothers were roommates while studying together at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.