Two of our firefighters lost their lives over the weekend in an aircraft accident. Jeff Piechura worked on the Coronado National Forest and Matt Miller was a pilot with Falcon Aviation. They were conducting aerial supervision on the Cedar Basin Fire in northwest Arizona when the accident occurred. 

Jeff lived in the Tucson, Arizona, area. He leaves behind his wife, Donna, and five children. During his firefighting career, Jeff was the first fire chief for the Northwest Fire District, a local fire district that serves the northwest Tucson metro area, a position he held for 24 years. He began employment with Coronado National Forest Nov. 17, 2019, and served as a division/group supervisor, Type 3 incident commander and air tactical group supervisor. Jeff had retired, but he remained qualified and available for incident command system positions. 

Matt was a very accomplished pilot, instructor and fire pilot. He was passionate in his main role as chief flight instructor, teaching thousands to fly aircraft over more than 20 years.

Their lives touched many people across the wildland fire community, and they will be greatly missed.

Our hearts go out to Jeff’s and Matt’s families, friends and colleagues.