Plane battling Western wildfires crashes, kills at least one crew member (AP) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A military cargo plane from North Carolina has crashed while fighting a wildfire in the Black Hills of South Dakota, killing at least one of the six crew members aboard. There was no official word on death or injuries, but the family of Lt. Col. Paul Mikeal of Mooresville, N.C., confirmed they were notified early Monday that he had died in the C-130 crash on Sunday. Amid ruins of burned-out homes, precious keepsakes Colorado wildfires may stomp out fireworks Obama on Colorado wildfires: "Devastation is enormous" Watch: Firefighters gain ground on Western wildfires The 42-year-old married father of two was a veteran of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Six crew members were aboard the C-130 from the North Carolina Air National Guard in Charlotte, N.C., said Lt. Col. Rose Dunlap. The plane crashed after dropping fire retardant Sunday, military officials said. Seven other firefighting C-130s are being held on the ground because of the crash. Fall River County, S.D., sheriff's officials told the Rapid City Journal (http://tinyurl.com/86dpvvc) three crew members were taken to a hospital. Military officials said they could not comment. A U.S. Forest Service official in Colorado offered sympathy to the crew members' families. "We grieve your loss this morning along with you," said Jerri Marr, supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, where some C-130s were fighting a wildfire last week. She didn't elaborate. Rescuers have reached the wreckage, authorities said. The terrain at the scene is "very, very rugged, straight up and straight down cliffs," said Frank Maynard, the Fall River County emergency management director. Eight Air Force C-130s can be equipped to drop water or fire retardant. They're flown by Air Force National Guard units at Charlotte, Port Hueneme, Calif., and Cheyenne, Wyo., and a Reserve unit in Colorado Springs, Colo. The planes can be fitted with a system of tanks and pipes called the Modular Airborne Firefighting System or MAFFS. It can drop 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant in seconds. The planes can be activated for firefighting duty if the rest of the private and government firefighting fleet is in use or unavailable. When on firefighting duty, the planes are under the U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., which is responsible for defending the U.S. and assisting civilian authorities in emergencies. All eight had been dispatched to Peterson last week to fight Colorado wildfires, including the 28-square-mile Waldo Canyon Fire. That fire killed two people and destroyed nearly 350 houses. The fire was 55 percent contained. The other seven C-130s are being kept on the ground under an "operational hold," said Northern Command spokesman Michael Kucharek. In aviation terminology, an operational hold is technically different from grounding but the effect is the same. It wasn't immediately clear when they would resume work or what impact their absence would have on firefighting across the West.