Grandmother, 6 year-old granddaughter believed to be victims of weekend plane crash
Jun 22, 2021, 8:31 AM | Updated: Jun 23, 2021, 5:32 pm
[Photo Credit: Mark Williams]
TOOELE COUNTY, Utah — A small plane crash that killed two people Thursday is also responsible for sparking the Morgan Canyon Fire in Tooele County. It is believed the victims of that crash are a woman and her 6-year-old granddaughter.
Officials with the Morgan Canyon Fire say the medical examiner is still working on autopsies and said they could not confirm the victims’ identities yet.
But Alexandra Seigel wrote in a Facebook post that her daughter six-year-old daughter, Elise, and her mother, Virginia died Thursday in a plane crash.
A post from Saturday says the two were killed around 11:30 p.m. Thursday night.
The Morgan Canyon Fire between Grantsville and Rush Valley was sparked by a small plane crash. Officials working on that fire said Monday they’re having a hard time getting it put out.
“We still have had people on it from day one trying to put it out but the terrain has been very, very limiting to our access and our ability to suppress this fire,” Fire Spokeswoman Sierra Hellstrom told KSL Newsradio.
Hellstrom said crews are having to battle falling rocks, dry debris, and wilderness conditions to try and access it.
“Where it’s currently at up in the wilderness is nearly impossible to access for firefighting activity,” she said.
She said crews will be putting an indirect line out in front of the fire, as well as calling in more equipment and extra crews to try and get extra fuel breaks.
“Our biggest issue we’re running with this fire is finding defensible land in which to fight this fire. ”
As of Monday afternoon, it had burned 157 acres.
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