A helicopter pilot was killed July 19 while fighting a wildfire near Haig Lake in northwestern Alberta. Ryan Gould, 41, from Whitecourt, Alberta was killed when his helicopter crashed while dropping water on a fire.
“He travelled and made an impact wherever he went,” Ryan Gould’s family said in a statement today shared by family friend Kassy Goodyer.
Peace Arch News reported that a fundraiser has been started; Gould leaves behind a wife and two sons on their Gypsy Vanner horse farm in Whitecourt. Gould is the third firefighter to die battling wildfires in Canada this year, during the worst season in Canada’s history.
Thursday morning an investigative team was en route to the crash site near Haig Lake, east of the town of Manning in the Peace River region. The site is remote and unreachable by road, according to Corporal Troy Savinkoff, and RCMP were flown in by helicopter; they arrived about an hour after the first police call.
Pilot Ryan Gould was the only person onboard when the Bell 205A went down in swampy terrain on Wednesday, Chris Krepski with the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada said. A signal from the 205’s emergency locator transmitter was received from the site at 6:15 p.m. about 80 km ENE of Peace River, Krepski said, adding that the crash occurred during bucket operations.
The BBC reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was heartbroken to hear that another Canadian had lost his life fighting wildfires. “We’ll never forget his service to his province and to our country,” said Trudeau.
The helicopter was operated by Valhalla Helicopters, which is based in West Kelowna, British Columbia.