Biddle Road Plane Crash Raw Media Recap

Here at Medford Alert, we pride ourselves on bringing you raw, fast breaking, and agenda-free news and events.

Part of that promise is showing you what we see, at the scene of the events we are covering.

Here is a special presentation of most of our raw coverage we shot during the tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of two Nevada residents as they took off from the Medford Airport on 12/5/21.

Our hearts go out to those affected by this crash along with the friends and families of Valerie Jean Serpa, and Donald Harbert Sefton, who both lost their lives as a result of the crash.

We arrived as Biddle Rd area streets were being closed by police. This was our first look at the scene.

Building alarms were sounding as we neared the dealership. More fire units were arriving every 20-40 seconds, as this had just been upgraded to a 3-alarm fire.

The LED streetlights in the area began to strobe as Pacific Power cut the power for the safety of firefighters and first responders working the volatile situation. Eventually, the entire area was plunged into darkness, with the exception of the glow of the blaze along with dozens of emergency vehicles’ lights.

As we got closer to the scene, we saw a Medford Fire ladder truck getting into position to assist the firefight from above. This is from a backlot near the Airport Chevrolet dealership.

This picture doesn’t show how dangerous it truly was for firefighters. We were about 150ft back from the building and could feel slight impacts from various explosions taking place at the scene. Being that firefighters were literally on top of the fire, they most likely felt much stronger impacts from the explosions taking place, as they worked to contain the fire.

Investigators believe the plane that crashed had approximately 128 gallons of fuel on board. That created an extremely hot and dangerous fire. Combined with the plane itself crashing into several cars on the lot, which also ignited.

As more resources were arriving, more streets on the area were being closed. You can see the hoses being run across the road to a nearby hydrant and why it’s important to keep vehicles away during these kinds of incidents.

As we moved to the south side of the building, we were beginning to see a lessened glow from the fire itself and more white smoke coming from the area. That was a welcome sight as that meant crews were getting a handle on the firefight.

This view shows the destruction of several vehicles at the dealership. Many were still on fire. The foam on the ground was from a nearby MFR Fire unit (MFR Truck 80) that was the first fire truck on scene. It has specialized equipment to fight fuel caused fires that are common with plane crashes.

We noticed many small fires in the vehicles that were involved in the crash. Firefighters would put a fire out, move to the next car, then have to return shortly after as another part of the car would ignite. Tedious and dangerous work, so close to the crash scene.

Visibility of ground crews was a challenge during the firefight and mop up period, as we were monitoring scanner traffic during the coverage. Luckily, no ground personnel or citizens were injured as a result of the crash.

As the fire was officially contained, a number of units were released. While monitoring scanner traffic, one point of good news was a headcount of employees at the dealership came back correct. Meaning no one was missing in the fire.

The scene was quickly turning over from an active event, to an active investigation. Medford Police moved all of us back twice over the next 10 minutes or so after the fire was officially contained.

Power remained out in the area for the next few hours. Biddle Rd between Lawnsdale and the EB 62 ramps was not only pitch black, but traffic would not be allowed back until later that night.