Updated at 2:50 p.m. on Monday, July 13, 2026
A 56-year-old man from British Columbia was identified as the pilot killed Sunday while responding to the Gold Mountain fire.
Nicholas Dale of Sooke, British Columbia, was identified by the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office Monday afternoon. Dale was piloting a K-MAX helicopter when the aircraft crashed into Silver Jack Reservoir, according to the sheriff’s office.
The crash was reported shortly after 5 p.m., and Dale’s body was later recovered from the submerged helicopter with the help of a dive team from Montrose.
Dale’s death marks the fourth firefighter death in Colorado — and on the Western Slope — this summer.
On Monday morning, a line of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency response vehicles flashing their lights stretched for nearly a mile as the convoy passed through the little towns and small cities between Gunnison and Grand Junction.
In Montrose, hundreds somberly lined U.S. Highway 50 holding American flags to honor Dale.
Linda Piencikowski waved a flag in each hand and started to choke up. Honoring this pilot — as well as all the crews working to protect Colorado from wildfires — is “very important to me,” she said.
“They’re doing such a wonderful job, and to lose — you know, we’ve lost four of them here in Colorado,” Piencikowski said.
The firefighters killed June 27 fighting the Snyder fire were assigned to a helitack team out of Rifle and were killed in a burnover, which is when a fire overtakes firefighters on the ground, forcing them to deploy emergency fire shelters. Two others were injured. At a recent public memorial held in Grand Junction, hundreds of people came to mourn.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who was in Mesa County two weeks ago to honor the fallen firefighters, said in a statement that the state was ready to lend resources toward an investigation into the death of Dale, if needed.
“I was devastated to hear that Nicholas Dale, a brave frontline fire aviation pilot, died battling the Gold Mountain Fire. I, and every Coloradan, am deeply grateful for the thousands of brave firefighters and pilots across the state protecting us and our communities,” Polis said in the statement.
Polis also ordered that flags be flown at half-mast to honor Dale.
The Gold Mountain fire sits at 11% containment and has 175 people under evacuation order, according to the governor’s office. Since it began on June 27, more than 36,000 acres have burned near Ouray and Ridgway.
As the state faces hot weather and severe drought, new wildfires are starting weekly — sometimes daily — as several large ones continue to burn.
Many rural residents remain displaced by the Gold Mountain fire, now more than 36,000 acres and 11% contained in remote alpine country. Closer to the Four Corners, the Ferris fire has reached nearly 65,000 acres and has had additional evacuations in recent days.
In Southern Colorado, the mammoth Aspen Acres fire has burned hundreds of structures and forced the evacuations of entire communities. It’s now more than 98,000 acres and 34% contained — and is the seventh largest wildfire in Colorado history.
William Woody contributed reporting to this story.
Copyright 2026 CPR News
