Oregon Public Broadcasting

Officials are still working to identify the nine people who died in a helicopter crash in northern California.

Three Medford-area firefighters are in the hospital with severe burns - and the pilot, employed by a Grants Pass company - is also hospitalized. Ethan Lindsey reports that the crash puts a spotlight on private firefighting in the West.

Eleven of the personnel in the crash were employed by Grayback Forestry, a private firefighting company out of Merlin, Oregon. The two pilots worked for Carson Helicopters, in Grants Pass.

All were working on contracts with the Forest Service, which pays more than $35-an-hour to private firefighters who battle huge fires, like the Iron Complex burning in the Shasta-Trinity Forest.

Rod Nichols is a spokesman for the Oregon Department to Forestry.

Rod Nichols: “In Oregon, we're using contract crews every year. We use our other resources first, we use our agency crews, and then in Oregon we use prison inmate crews, they're excellent firefighters, but they are not enough.”

Since the Bush Administration took office, privatization has swept the firefighting business - more than 100 for-profit companies are estimated to make more than a billion dollars a year, in government contracts.