Two helicopter pilots died Sunday afternoon while battling the Dome fire in Yosemite national park, because the universe apparently looked at wildland firefighting and thought, "You know what this needs? More tragedy."

The pilots were conducting water drops over the Dome fire - which had already burned more than 3,000 acres since igniting last week - when their helicopter went down around 3pm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. They were employed by the aerospace company Precision and working with a helitack rappelling crew, which is the charmingly nicknamed unit that specializes in using ropes to descend from helicopters into terrain that would otherwise be inaccessible. The helicopter crashed southeast of Ostrander Lake, per Benjamin Cossel, spokesperson for the Federal Complex Incident Management Team overseeing the response.

Details about the circumstances of the crash were not immediately released. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, because that's what happens when a helicopter falls out of the sky.

"It is with unimaginable sadness and broken hearts that we share the loss of two beloved members of our team," Precision wrote in a social media post. "We are devastated by this loss and are struggling to find the words. We ask for privacy and compassion for their families and our team as we grieve this tremendous loss." The names of the pilots were not immediately released.

Roughly 580 people are fighting the Dome Fire, which started on 15 September near Wawona, California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It's burning on about 4.7 sq miles (12.3 sq km) and is about 15% contained. The lake near the crash site was roughly 9 miles (14.5km) south of Yosemite's iconic El Capitan, and about 7 miles (11.3km) northeast of Wawona. Water-dropping helicopters have been key to fighting the blaze, which has spread across rugged terrain - terrain so rugged that, again, people have to rappel out of helicopters to reach it.

At least 14 people have died while helping with wildfires in the US this year, the most since 2022 when 25 deaths were recorded, according to government reports. Three firefighters died battling Colorado's Knowles fire, and an additional member of that crew succumbed to injuries weeks afterwards - the most deadly entrapment in 13 years.

The job has always carried inherent risks, but this year has been especially dangerous. The Trump administration has increased pressure on firefighting forces, amid a critical shortage of federal firefighters. Because nothing says "support our troops" quite like asking an understaffed force to do more with less while the planet burns.