NEW ORLEANS – National Guard helicopter crews from Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama have dropped more than 1.1 million gallons of water on wildfires in western Louisiana since Aug. 23.
The helicopter crews continue the firefighting mission in Beauregard, Sabine and Vernon Parishes in coordination with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s office and local agencies.
The helicopter crews use buckets to draw water from any open water source and carry and drop it onto fires.
The augmentation to the LANG aerial firefighting efforts, through Emergency Management Assistance Compact support from the Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas National Guard, has resulted in a rotation of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and CH-47 Chinook helicopters that have provided over 385 flight hours of aid from the time LANG assets were activated in response to the wildfires.