Northern Colorado firefighters have an additional air resource for battling wildfires this summer.
As of July 1, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest and Pawnee National Grassland are managing a Type III initial attack helicopter. Forest Service spokeswoman Reghan Cloudman says it’s well suited for the local conditions and terrain.
"It’s going to be dispatched automatically for fires on National Forest System land, or BLM lands in the forest area," Cloudman says, "as well as available to other cooperating agencies, counties, etc, through our normal ordering procedures."
The helicopter is under contract for the next two months, and will be stationed in north Fort Collins. Cloudman says it will be staffed seven days a week, with at least four firefighters on hand each day.
