N.C. Guard heads west to battle fires

About 50 Charlotte-based N.C. National Guardsmen have been called to fight raging wildfires devastating drought-stricken Northern California.

On Friday, the East Coast’s only military-based C-130 was to leave the N.C. Air National Guard base at Charlotte Douglas International Airport to aid in the massive effort threatening thousands of acres in Lower Lake and Napa counties as well as some areas in Southern California.

Charlotte’s unit, the 145th Airlift Wing, activated by the federal government, sent an advance team of N.C. Guardsmen by commercial flights Wednesday to support and service Mobile Airborne Fire-Fighting aircraft in the fire zones, said Air Force Maj. Paul Kurts. Charlotte’s unit will operate from McClellan Air Tanker Base in North Highlands, Calif., near Sacramento.

Charlotte’s 145th is the same unit that lost four airmen and had two injured in the crash of a fire-fighting plane near Edgemont, S.D., in the foothills of the Black Hills, four years ago.

A second firefighting plane based in Charlotte was reassigned to the Coast Guard and U.S. Forest Service about a month ago, leaving the local unit with only one, Kurts said.

Equipped with a van-sized tank which rolls into the rear of the versatile of C-130, the Charlotte-based aircraft can dump tons of fire retardant on advancing wildfires to thwart their spread.

Charlotte’s unit is one of four equipped for such missions, and the only one based east of the Rocky Mountains.

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 8:59 PM with the headline "N.C. Guard heads west to battle fires."