Nine firefighters were presumed dead and four were seriously injured when their helicopter crashed down around 7:45 PM Tuesday night shortly after taking off from a remote site about 35 miles northwest of Redding, California. If evidence of the deaths is found, the incident would be one of the deadliest involving U.S. firefighters.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration sent teams to the accident site in the isolated, forested area northwest of the small town of Junction City.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, one individual was confirmed dead, and eight were unaccounted for. The F.A.A. specified there were 13 people aboard the chopper and told the Forest Service there were nine deaths.

Cynthia Sage, a Forest Service representative, said the accident happened at about 7:45 p.m. as the aircraft carried firefighters back to a staging area after they had battled a blaze in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

According to Sage, the medical evacuation personnel that came to the scene could not get the wounded out until about 9:30 p.m. because the crash was in a remote location.

"We would like to ask the public to keep their thoughts and prayers for the fire personnel involved and the families," Sage said.

F.A.A. spokesman Ian Gregor said the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter was wrecked by fire after going down "under unknown circumstances" in an isolated mountain place. According to Gregor, the nine dead were supposedly killed by the flames that destroyed the helicopter.

The crew of the chopper had two men, both employees of Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., and was ferrying 11 firefighters. The pilot is one of the injured, while the co-pilot is missing and presumed dead.

The four injured men first were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding. Medical center representative Michael Burke said three of them were transferred afterwards to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Ten of the firefighters on the helicopter performed as employees of a private company, Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Ore., said Leslie Habetler, company representative. The identity of the 11^th passenger it is still uncertain.

According to Habetler, Grayback workers Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18, both of Medford, Ore., were at UC Davis, and attending officials said a third victim, William Coultas, also was receiving treatment at the medical center. Habetler said employee Rick Schroeder, 42, also of Medford, was at Mercy.

Brown’s condition was upgraded to fair Wednesday night, while both Frohreich and Coultas’s conditions remained critical.

Forest Service workers joined the victims' families at the hospital Tuesday night.

Company officials, including Grayback President Mike Wheelock, were informing relatives of those missing and asking them for particulars that would aid authorities set identities, Habetler said.

In 2002, Grayback lost four firefighters when the van they were in turned over on its way to a fire in Colorado.

The crew involved in Tuesday's crash had been fighting a blaze that is part of a complex of fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest started by lightning strikes. Those fires, which have been active since June 21, have devoured more than 86,000 acres of grass, brush and trees.