Three US Firefighters Killed in Australian Air Tanker Crash

Three U.S. firefighters were killed when their water-bombing air tanker went down while fighting wildfires in Australia on Thursday.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said at a press conference that contact with the C-130 aircraft was lost just before 1:30 p.m., CNN reports. The plane had been heading to battle a bushfire near the town of Cooma in the state of New South Wales.

"Tragically, there appears to be no survivors as a result of the crash down in the Snowy Monaro area," Fitzsimmons said. "It's impacted heavily with the ground. And initial reports are there was a large fireball associated with the impact of the plane as it hit the ground."

The aircraft and crew were from Coulson Aviation, an aerial firefighting firm contract to help the New South Wales RFS, according to CNN. The names of the firefighters have not been released.

"Today is a stark and horrible reminder of the dangerous conditions that our volunteers, our emergency services personnel across the number of agencies take on a daily basis,"  New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. "It demonstrates the dangerous work currently being undertaken. It also demonstrates the conditions that our firefighters are working under."

Officials said the cause of the crash was not clear, and it's under investigation.

"We're just here taking care of our folks," Traci Weaver, a spokeswoman for the U.S. firefighting teams on the ground, told CNN. "And it hits close to home when it's Americans, too—as tight a family as we are in the firefighting community—it's just hard."    

On Wednesday, U.S. officials pledged to send two more 20-person crews to help battle Australia's devastating wildfires. The United States so far has sent more than 200 firefighters and other staff to the country, CNN added.