BURLINGTON — A North Dakota National Guard helicopter helped fight Sunday's train derailment fire.
The Black Hawk helicopter distributed thousands of gallons of water over the almost 20 burning train cars that derailed early Sunday morning near Burlington.
National Guard Public Affairs Director William Prokopyk said Governor Doug Burgum authorized the ND National Guard to assist in extinguishing the fire early Sunday afternoon, and the Guard headed to the scene around 2:30 p.m.
With 11 guard members manning the helicopter, the crew was able to distribute 19 loads of water from a 600 gallon bucket over the burning containers, which was around 10,200 gallons, according to Prokopyk.
“In the helicopter, there’s a crew of four - two pilots and two crew chiefs,” said Prokopyk. “The remaining 7 were aviation operations, you know everything you need to put an aircraft in the air, and domestic operations.”
