Deon Classay, a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe who was a veteran Bureau of Indian Affairs firefighter, was found dead on Sunday morning.

Classay, 43, was part of the Fort Apache Hotshots. The crew was battling the Diamond Fire when he went missing.

Classay joined the crew in 1990. He helped fight the recent Wallow Fire, which was the largest in state history, and the Rodeo-Chedeski Fire, the second largest.

“This is such a tight-knit community that we all know each other, and a lot of us are related to each other,” Candy Lupe, a spokesperson for the BIA agency on the Fort Apache Reservation, told the Associated Press. “Everyone in the community is taking it hard.”

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Authorities investigating death of firefighter who responded to blaze in eastern Arizona (AP 7/25)