At the request of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the Tennessee Army National Guard on Tuesday (March 4, 2025) provided two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, from Knoxville’s 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion, to support wildfire response in Mountain City, which is in Johnson County in northeast Tennessee.
The Tennessee National Guard was notified of the request around 9:00 a.m. CST Tuesday and two helicopters departed from McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base around 10am. Each aircraft is equipped with Bambi Buckets used to provide hundreds of gallons of water to fight wildfires as well as any other missions that support first responders.
Numerous other agencies also responded to a wildfire in Tellico Plains on Tuesday that jumped several ridges and prompted evacuations. As of 3:30pm Central Time the Monroe County blaze had grown to 100 acres in size and was being battled by over two dozen firefighters.