A large fire sparked last week between Elmo and Dayton in Montana has grown from an initial 4,000 acres to 16,000 acres, forcing highway closures and evacuations as structures are also being lost.
Bridger Aerospace has been deployed along with several other aerial assets, both fixed wing and helicopter. A first for Bridger is the dispatching of all four of their CL-415EAF scoopers along with FireTrac aircraft that have been dispatched to monitor the fire’s growth and direction on a constant basis using their onboard EO/IR equipment.
Bridger Aerospace aircraft have been on location since Friday fighting the fire. AerialFire reached out to Bridger for comment on the fire. We were told that the four aircraft dropped 341 times yesterday, totaling 481,492 gallons, and have cumulatively dropped 290 times, delivering 409,480 gallons on Monday so far on the Elmo Fire, averaging one drop every four minutes that the aircraft were actively working the fire.
