The Nevada National Guard aerial firefighting efforts intensified through August with Nevada Army National Guard aviators activated 22 Soldiers, operating a CH-47 Chinook and an UH-60 Black Hawk from the Army Aviation Support Facility at Stead to support the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) in Elko County.

The Jakes Fire, among others, burnt more than 80,000 acres in northwestern Elko County.

“Nevada’s expanding partnership with NDF has gone beyond dropping buckets of water. It has also moved into supporting firefighters on the ground with movement, food delivery and logistics and medevac support,” said Lt. Col. Dillon Sauer, 991st Aviation Troop commander. “It’s another example of the National Guard being always prepared to support the citizens of Nevada.”

Nevada Army aviators dropped more than 70,000 gallons of water, transported about 200 personnel and delivered more than 500 meals for teams working with the NDF in Elko County.

“We even helped move a utility task vehicle that had its front steering break,” said Maj. Chris Sandin, Nevada Army aviation operations officer.

After receiving the call for standby to return to Elko County, the state also requested Nevada Army Guard aviation support to the Rancho Fire to relieve overworked crews on the blaze burning north of Reno.

The Soldiers, who had been briefly placed on standby from their work in Elko County, almost immediately began their response to the Rancho Fire, about 30 miles north of their home station outside Reno. They worked five hours on dropping more than 20,000 gallons of water between the two aircraft involved.

Additionally, the Nevada Air National Guard was also activated on the Colorado Springs Airtanker Base. That request was for one C-130 H from the 152nd Airlift Wing in Reno. The 152nd Airlift Wing has 19 aircrew members supporting the mission. On the first day, they supported efforts with five drops totaling 13,900 gallons of fire retardant on the Crosho Fire in Rio Blanco County, Colo.