Glen Gosselin was at home Wednesday morning in Maplewood when he heard the helicopter overhead.

Because there are several wetlands in the area, the 61-year-old is accustomed to the sound of copters spraying for mosquitoes in the spring and summer.

“This one sounded lower to the ground, like something wasn’t right,” Gosselin said Wednesday. “It sounded like it was going to crash.”

Moments later, at 8:15 a.m., the helicopter did crash.

The Bell 47 craft had plunged into a garage about 30 feet behind a home in the 2700 block of Mayhill Road near Seventh Street and exploded.

The pilot, Michael Kramer of St. Charles, Minn., died at the scene, said Maplewood Acting Police Chief Dave Kvam.

No one else was injured.

Kramer, 44, was employed by Scott’s Helicopter Services, a Le Sueur, Minn., company that has contracted with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District since 1987 to provide pest control over wide swaths of the Twin Cities area.

Kramer was spraying to kill mosquito larvae when the helicopter went down, said Stephen Manweiler, operations director of the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District.

He had been in the air about 15 minutes.

Kramer had worked for Scott’s for about three summers, owner Scott Churchill said. The 32-year-old company employs about 25 pilots.

“We are like a family, so it’s a terrible loss,” Churchill said.

David Kramer said his brother was an experienced pilot who had flown helicopters on medical, news and farm assignments.

“Flying is something he just always wanted to do,” Kramer said.

He said his brother was married and had two children, and that the family had recently moved to St. Charles from Tennessee.

The National Transportation Safety Board were on the scene Wednesday, investigating the cause of the crash.

Investigators planned to visit Le Sueur on Thursday to review Scott’s aircraft records, as well as records related to Kramer’s flying background.

The helicopter’s GPS navigation device was recovered from the wreckage and will be sent to Washington, D.C., for analysis, said Aaron Sauer, senior air safety investigator for the NTSB.

He said it could take six months to a year to identify the cause of the crash.

The helicopter and part of the garage were in flames when rescue crews arrived.

“The whole thing was burned up. … Just the frame was left,” Gosselin said.

Kramer was found dead inside the helicopter, Maplewood Fire Chief Steve Lukin said.

Crews put out the fire in moments. The garage was charred and partially destroyed.

The helicopter left from Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie earlier Wednesday morning, Churchill said. The company also keeps helicopters at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport.

Spraying for mosquitoes involves flying just above tree tops, Churchill said.

“It’s as dangerous as you make it, but for a proficient pilot who has been doing this for a long time, it’s just part of your daily job,” he said.

The company has lost one other pilot, Churchill said. A pilot entering data into the helicopter’s GPS system flew into a dirt pile and died in 2010, he said.

The control district has treated more than 100,000 acres in the Twin Cities area since May.

Three other Scott’s helicopters have been involved in accidents while spraying for the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District in the past 25 years, said Jim Stark, executive director of the district.

All three involved forced landings, and none was fatal.

“This is certainly the most significant,” Stark said. “This is a very, very sad day for us.”

In the past decade, there have been four fatal helicopter accidents in Minnesota, including Wednesday’s crash, and six in Wisconsin, according to NTSB data.

The fatalities in Minnesota occurred when the pilot was maneuvering at low altitude or attempting to land.

A maintenance worker on the trails of the Maplewood Nature Center said he heard an unusual loud sound Wednesday morning — a helicopter’s distinctive whirring nearing the ground.

“I heard a big ‘womp,’ and then no more chopper noise,” said Chuck Deaver.

Deaver followed the sound to the crash site. Firefighters were already on the scene.

“All I saw was remains of the charred chopper,” Deaver said.

Linda Richie, a neighbor whose back yard overlooks the crash site, said she heard “a loud boom.”

“I thought it was out here,” she said, pointing to busy Century Avenue in front of her home. “Then someone came running up and said a helicopter crashed.”

Carol McDonough, another neighbor who lives across the street, said she regularly hears mosquito-control helicopters flying over the nearby nature center.

She didn’t hear the crash but said the owners of the garage, a couple with a young son, were not home at the time. They arrived later.

“It’s just tragic,” McDonough said of the pilot’s death.

Marino Eccher contributed to this report. Sarah Horner can be reached at 651-228-5539. Follow her at twitter.com/hornsarah. Joseph Lindberg can be reached at 651-228-5513. Follow him at twitter.com/JosephLindberg.