{"id":429463,"date":"2026-08-11T04:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T04:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/429463\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T04:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T04:42:10","slug":"portersville-mourns-native-son-helicopter-pilot-killed-fighting-utah-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/429463\/","title":{"rendered":"Portersville mourns native son, helicopter pilot killed fighting Utah wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX)Portersville is mourning the loss of Miles Elliot, a Porterville native and helicopter pilot who died while supporting firefighting operations in Utah.<\/p>\n

Elliot was one of two pilots aboard a helicopter that crashed Aug. 7 while fighting the Widemouth 2 Fire.<\/p>\n

He was a Porterville High School graduate with deep roots in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiles was one of those pillars in our community that made this all American city,\u201d Portersville Mayor Greg Meister said. <\/p>\n

\"Portersville<\/p>\n

Portersville mourns native son, helicopter pilot killed fighting Utah wildfire (KUTV)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was involved and engaged in many aspects of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliot traveled across the nation fighting wildland fires. <\/p>\n

In addition to flying, he served on the Little League baseball board and the airport committee and was also an entrepreneur and a photographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was superman. He did all kinds of things. He was so smart. He could fix anything,\u201d said Liz Raya, a friend of Elliot.<\/p>\n

\"Portersville<\/p>\n

Portersville mourns native son, helicopter pilot killed fighting Utah wildfire (Courtesy of the Elliot Family)<\/p>\n

Raya said Elliot had a wide range of interests and skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe worked on all kinds of different equipment. He built things. He did computers. He was a photographer. He liked going in his Razor, like out in the dessert,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Information about funeral services and how the community can honor Elliot is expected to be shared as arrangements are finalized.<\/p>\n

Elliot is survived by his fianc\u00e9 and his son. Meister said the community will work to keep his memory alive.<\/p>\n

\"Portersville<\/p>\n

Portersville mourns native son, helicopter pilot killed fighting Utah wildfire (KUTV)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know because of men like Miles throughout American history, we the people get to know the blessings of liberty,\u201d Meister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX)Portersville is mourning the loss of Miles Elliot, a Porterville native and helicopter pilot who died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-429463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}