Louisiana Guard begins water-drop mission for marsh fires

BATON ROUGE, La.—At the direction of the Governor, the Louisiana National Guard began assisting the city of New Orleans with aerial firefighting in the marshes of the Bayou Sauvage area, Aug. 30.

By sunset Tuesday, Guard helicopters dropped more than 116,000 gallons of water over small fires just north of Highway 90 and east of Industrial Road completing more than four hours of operations each.

Today, the LANG provided four helicopters with helibuckets—large buckets suspended by a cable carrying water for aerial firefighting.

Tomorrow, five additional Louisiana Guard UH-60 Black Hawks will join the effort.

The LANG is working in cooperation with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), who is coordinating efforts with other state agencies to ensure the safety of citizens.