Smokey Bear Hotshots

When tankers and helicopters drop retardant or water/foam on a wildfire they are doing so to support the wildland firefighters on the ground. There are many types of wildland firefighting crews. The video that I am embedding below shows one type of wildland firefighting crew, a hotshot crew. Hotshots or type 1 crews are highly experienced wildland firefighters, to read a little more about hotshot crews, read this page about hotshots from the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management website.

This is a video showing the 2013 season of the Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew. The Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew is based at Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico. You might want to read a little more about the history of the Smokey Bear Hotshots and how they got there name by going to the Smokey Bear Hotshot webpage on the Lincoln National Forest. They also have a page of photos on Flickr (go here for that page).

Allow just under 10 minutes to watch the video, some of it is time lapse videography. Towards the later half of the video you will see a couple of airtankers including what looks to me like a Single Engine Airtanker dropping retardant on a fire in support of the Smokey Bear hotshots and other firefighters on the ground as well as a helicopter and bucket.



direct link to video

Stay safe everyone!