By Kelley Ashford & Faris Tanyos
August 13, 2008
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. -- A public tribute to honor the nine men who died in last week's helicopter crash will take place Friday morning at Lithia Ampitheater in the Jackson County Fairgrounds.
The tribute will start with a procession of 25 to 30 fire trucks at the Rogue Valley Mall at 9 a.m. and make its way down Biddle Road to the fairgrounds. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. It will be followed by a procession of two dozen fire vehicles from Medford to Central Point.
Organizers are encouraging anyone who wants to watch the procession to find a spot along Biddle Road. Commuters are asked to find an alternate route while the procession takes place.
The tribute is being organized by the Bureau of Land Management, Grayback Forestry, and Carson Helicopters, with assistance from others in the interagency fire community.
Gates open to the public at 8:30 a.m. The Lithia Amphitheater is at 1 Peninger Road and is accessible from exit 33 off I-5.
"I think when people come out of the ceremony on Friday, there will be no doubt that these nine people are part of the firefighting community, and that will be clear at that point," says Jim Whittington with BLM.
There were 13 people on the helicopter that crashed in Shasta-Trinity National Forest east of Redding last Tuesday. Seven of the nine men killed were with Grayback Forestry. They are:
Shawn Blazer, 30 from Medford, Ore.
Scott Charleson, 25 from Phoenix, Ore.
Matthew Hammer, 23 from Grants Pass, Ore.
Edrik Gomez, 19, from Ashland, Ore.
Bryan Rich, 29, from Medford, Ore.
David Steele, 19, from Ashland, Ore.
Steven Renno, 21 from Cave Junction, Ore.
The other two men killed were 54-year-old Pilot Roark Schwanenberg of Lostine in Northeastern Oregon, and 64-year-old Check Pilot Jim Ramage, with the U.S. Forest Service. Ramage was from Redding California.
Three of the four injured were Grayback firefighters. Jonathan Frohreich, 18, and Michael Brown, 20, have been released from the hospital. Rick Schoeder, 42, is in fair condition at Mercy Medical Center in Redding.
Pilot William Coultas, 44, of Cave Junction is in critical but stable condition at UC Davis Medical Center. Coultas and Schwanenberg both flew for Grants Pass-based Carson Helicopters.
