The Washington Air National Guard was busy Monday mapping out the McCleod wildfire in Okanogan County. They’re using infrared technology that normally helps pinpoint enemy targets.
“We essentially bring what we do in the military, which is dropping bombs on behalf of the Army, to here in fighting wildland forest fires,” said Lt. Col
The Air Guard flies RC-26 aircraft equipped with an infrared and video sensor. They map out the fire line, relay the information to a 40-foot antenna at the command post and then relay it to crews at the fire line.
“I can show the fire guy that I'm with, ‘Five seconds ago or literally five minutes ago, this is where your fire line was,’” Sgt. Jimmy Takach said. “And this is extremely valuable to them because before we came along, their information was half a day old.”
Crews on the ground have tablets that show the maps in real time.