AG真人百家乐 County will spend $2.4 million on a helicopter to fight fires. County commissioners approved the purchase today.
The county already has three helicopters, but Danny Hobby with AG真人百家乐 County Emergency Services says this helicopter will be different.
鈥淚t鈥檚 specific to firefighting, which is a great benefit to us," says Hobby. "We found that during that we were limited in having [the state's] aircraft available to us, because the entire state was burning up. Now we鈥檙e going to have an aircraft available to us that is a fire aircraft.鈥�
The UH-1H helicopter will be a military surplus helicopter that is refurbished in "like new" condition, according to AG真人百家乐 County. The aircraft will have a fixed tank capable of holding up to 350 gallons of water, compared to the detachable 130-gallon bucket in the EC-145s.
Hobby says they hope to have the new UH-1H in operation by next summer.
