HABERSHAM COUNTY, Ga. — Chopper pilot Mateo Crivelli is on standby with the U.S. Forest Service and is ready to fly out of Habersham County at a moment’s notice.
“They’ll do an attack on any new wildfires fires that start. That helicopter will cover all of North Georgia,” the Forest Service’s Steve Bekkerus told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
Federal forest firefighters are protecting 26 counties in place of state squads that have been rushed to the big blazes close to the Florida line.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“All of the Georgia Forestry Commission firefighters are going down and actively fighting those fires,” Bekkerus said.
This kind of mutual aid started way back in 1911.
Now, the U.S. Forest Service helicopter is equipped with a 260-gallon refillable water bag, and what they call a chaser truck with a crew to support the chopper.
This outfit has been assigned here since the first of the year, and is now needed more than ever since state forestry crews are in a desperate fire more than 300 miles to the south.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
“They have an office and ranger in every county, but now in some places they’re down to only one ranger in the entire county, so we are backing them up,” Bekkerus said.
Bekkerus says 125 U.S. Forest Service personnel are scattered across North and Central Georgia while the bulk of their state counterparts are way down south.