Tenn. Army National Guard crews head to Chattanooga to fight wildfires

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — Two Tennessee Army National Guard units made their way across the Volunteer State Tuesday morning for a full day of firefighting in East Tennessee.

The two four-person units prepped early Tuesday morning to head to Chattanooga to help fight the wildfires.

“We get there, we pick up a forestry representative, they’re in contact with other forestry representatives that are on the ground, and they’re telling us basically where we need to take the water to,” Sgt. Greg McLean said.

Sgt. McLean is one of the crew chiefs that will be controlling the water flow. Officials said each aircraft will dump around 600 gallons of water.

“We just control the bucket that opens and closes and make sure that we get the bucket full of water and dumping the water where it needs to go,” Sgt. McLean said.

McLean says both teams will be able to work in the air around five hours, dumping hundreds of gallons of water on the wildfires in Chattanooga.

Sgt. McLean said in his eight years with the guard, this is the first wildfire he has fought and that he is grateful for the opportunity to help fellow Tennesseans.

“It’s really nice. We have three facilities across the state, and it’s really nice for all three facilities to come together and work on a common goal,” McLean said.

The guard here in Madison County has been on a rotating shift with other air facilities across the state, and they will be on standby to go back if they are needed.