Second state firefighter believed dead in California wildfires

YREKA, Calif. — Authorities say a firefighter who died Saturday while scouting a Northern California blaze is likely a fire chief from Washington state.

Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said Sunday that investigators believed the firefighter was 49-year-old Daniel Packer of Lake Tapps.

Gravenkamp said the 250-acre fire was preventing crews from recovering the body to make a positive identification but that several other firefighters who escaped from the scene identified the victim as Packer, chief of East Pierce County Fire & Rescue in a 142-square-mile area with a population of 72,000 east of Tacoma.

Packer, immediate past president of the Washington Fire Chiefs Association, was working as a division supervisor in the Siskiyou Mountains, according to a news release and death notice from Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer.

"He was overrun by the fire when the wind shifted unexpectedly," Schaeffer wrote.

In his work with the chiefs association, Packer was especially involved in state emergency mobilization and incident management team planning, Schaeffer added.

Flags at fire stations in the Eastern Washington and other jurisdictions around Washington state were lowered to half staff.

Klamath National Forest spokesman Duane Lyons said a U.S. Forest Service team would arrive Monday to investigate the cause of his death.

Eighteen-year-old Washington state firefighter Andrew Palmer died Friday after he was hit by a falling tree while battling another Northern California wildfire.