The flags are at half-mast in Sooke, B.C., to honour the passing of a local resident, Nicholas Dale.
The 56-year-old pilot had been fighting the out-of-control Gold Mountain fire in Colorado when the helicopter he was piloting crashed into a reservoir.
He leaves behind a wife and two boys.
“He was out there doing his best and just so very sad that we lost a great person and an experienced person fighting something, a natural disaster,” said Dale’s long-time friend Adam Gilliver, speaking from Aireys Inlet in Australia.
Gilliver said Dale grew up in Australia where he began his flying career.
“He loved people and he loved being in that role where he could help as much as he could through his love of flying as well,” said Gilliver.
A social media post indicates Dale had previously worked for Ontario’s air ambulance program prior to 2005. Gilliver said Dale had also worked in Alaska and had decades of flying experience.
“He was a very caring, experienced man who loved the job he was in. It says a lot about the man that he was over there, in another country,” Gilliver said.
Dale’s body was recovered by a dive team about 20 feet deep in the water.
However, the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. said the wreckage of the helicopter Dale was piloting has not yet been pulled from the reservoir where the accident took place.
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