The South Dakota Wildland Fire Division is adding a single-engine air tanker base in the northern Black Hills.
The state firefighting agency already has tanker planes in Hot Springs and Rapid City. The new base is in rented space at the Spearfish airport.
Jay Wickham is the assistant chief of operations for South Dakota Wildland Fire. He says the additional location allows crews to respond quicker to fires in the region.
“If we have a fire start in the Spearfish and Belle Fourche area or north of that those aircraft would have to return to Rapid City to reload their retardant,” Wickham says. “This way it makes a shorter turnaround time between drops on the fire.”
Wickham says they’ve been working on a Spearfish location for about a year. He says the move gained urgency with the dry conditions in the state.
Much of the northwest portion of the state is in moderate to severe drought.