One of the aerial assets that most States in the United States have to assist wildland firefighters on the ground when conditions warrant are the aerial assets of the National Guard or Reserve units located in their State. In many cases, the aerial asset is the UH60 Blackhawk Helicopter. I am not certain of how much water the bambi buckets on the Blackhawks can carry but I believe that it is at least 500 gallons, perhaps more. I know that my own state of New Jersey has a National Guard unit with Sikorsky UH60 Black Hawks that can be used to fight wildfires if requested.
Thanks to Mike Archer of the Wildfire News of the Day Newsletter for May 10th, I found a nice report from KFYR in Bismark, North Dakota of a behind the scenes look at preparing National Guard Blackhawks to work wildfires. North Dakota has had at least two instances this year where the North Dakota National Guard's Blackhawks have been deployed to fight wildfires. As always, I am never quite sure how long news organizations maintain the link to their reports but it should be up for awhile.
Blackhawks and other helicopters from the National Guard and other military reserve units are an invaluable resource to assist wildland firefighters when conditons warrant. While I do not believe that National Guard Blackhawks have been deployed in New Jersey to assist in wildland firefighting, I am very glad that they are around to assist should the need arise.
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