Authorities confirmed Thursday the deaths of the nine people unaccounted for in the Trinity County helicopter. They also presented a picture of the terrific crash in the remote mountains of Northern California.

According to Kitty Higgins, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, "two survivors escaped the aircraft, and when they were able to get out of the aircraft, they were on fire."

"The third escaped under his own power and did go back in to rescue and pull out the fourth survivor," said Higgins.

Furthermore, she said that around 30 firefighters and support personnel witnessed the helicopter with 13 passengers and a full tank of fuel taking off from an isolated "helispot" at approximately 6,000 feet altitude at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, traveled about 150 yards and crashed, bursting into flames.

The corpses and devastated Sikorsky S-61 chopper, operated by Carson Helicopters, are still at the site.

Trinity County Undersheriff Eric Palmer reported during an afternoon news conference, held about 35 miles from the crash site, a confused and difficult aftermath that lasted for hours.

The U.S. Forest Service called the Sheriff's Department a half hour after the crash and reported the incident. At first, they said 16 people were on board and none had died.

"This information later turned out to be inaccurate," Palmer said.

According to Palmer, after six more hours, the fire service command team for the Iron Complex fire called and reported that the whereabouts of nine people were unknown. The personnel with the Sheriff's Office did not reach the site until 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

As a federal investigation into the cause of the accident began Thursday, members of the safety board, Forest Service and Federal Aviation Administration met in the morning, along with representatives of Carson Helicopters, Sikorsky Helicopters and General Electric, which built the engine on the helicopter.

Higgins said that agents would try to find the helicopter's voice data recorder, but she said she could not guarantee it would work because of the extensive fire damage.

One of the survivors, Michael Brown, 20, of Medford, Ore., said in a telephone interview Thursday from his hospital bed in Sacramento that his team was leaving the area at the time of the crash because a lightning storm was fast heading their way.

Another survivor, Richard Schroeder, 42, also of Medford, said in a phone interview Wednesday night from his hospital room in Redding that it appeared the helicopter's rotor hit a tree as it was taking off. He also said that his sitting up front position may have saved him.

Ten of the casualties, Schroeder and Brown included, were employees of the Merlin, Ore.-based Grayback Forestry, one of the biggest and longest-established private firefighting contractors.

Based on the company identifications, six firefighters who died were Shawn Blazer, 30, and Bryan Rich, 29, of Medford; Scott Charleson, 25, of Phoenix, Ore.; Matthew Hammer, 23, of Grants Pass, Ore.; Edrik Gomez, 19, and David Steele, 19, of Ashland, Ore. Officials had not yet given out the names of two firefighters, awaiting notification of their families. According to Carson Helicopters Inc., one of its pilots, Roark Schwanenberg, 54, of Lostine, Ore., was one of the nine dead.