After $1.5M investment into wildfire response, DougCo officials display newly arrived heli
May 24, 2025
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — After investing $1.5 million into its wildfire response preparedness in January 2025, Douglas County officials showcased what they’re using some of that money for on Friday.
AI cameras, brush trucks, and aerial support are all among the newly acquired technology and equipment county officials hope will help them battle blazes this year.
Like many other counties in Colorado, Douglas County is now using Pano AI cameras to receive quick notification when a plume of smoke is detected. Last July, Denver7 brought you the story behind these cameras, which helped to quickly identify the Bear Creek Fire.
Since Pano AI was founded in 2020, it’s detected more than 100,000 fires, Sonia Kastner, co-founder and CEO of Pano AI, told us last summer.
Along with getting those cameras, the county also used the $1.5 million to acquire access to a Type 2 helicopter that it can use yearround. Denver7 shared this story in April 2023. It marked the largest investment the county had made toward aerial support and was one of the largest made by a local government in Colorado, according to the county.
“When we get notified of a smoke investigation or fire, then we load up in our helicopter, we fly over the fire, give a size up if there is one or smoke investigation, and then we will land next to the fire in a safe area and unload and set our helicopter up for water operations,” explained Brianna Smith, who is on the helitack team. “This helicopter is special because it does have the tank attached to the helicopter. We don’t have to set up buckets like other different types of helicopters, and it’s very quick.”
She said crews can set that up in under a minute.
“When we get out, we just pull our stuff out, drop down the snorkel, and then they fly to the nearest lake or water source to fill up the bucket,” she said. “It’s 323 gallons of water that we can drop from anywhere.”
Smith has a background in battling structure fires but decided to join Douglas County’s wildland firefighting side.
She’s now on a helitack team of eight who use the Type 2 helicopter regularly. Though, prior to the year-round contract acquisition, the team was more limited on when they could use it.
“It’s major,” Smith said. “I mean, anytime there’s a smoke investigation, we’re 15 minutes from anywhere in our county, we can get there.”
Denver7 took a look at the reality of year-round wildfires in our special “Burned Out” in November. Watch it below and read our in-depth story here.
Smith told Denver7 she was first introduced to the Type 2 helicopter back in June of 2024 when the Bear Creek Fire sparked up in Douglas County.
“We got the smoke signal, we loaded up and we flew around. We spotted the smoke, and then we landed,” she said. “We had to land at the base or the top of Waterton Canyon and then we hiked the Colorado Trail into the fire, and while we were hiking, the pilot was able to pull up water and start dropping it on the fire.”
The Bear Creek Fire burned roughly three acres, but without access to the aircraft, Smith said it is likely that crews would have had to do even more hiking into the area where it was burning.
“The firefighters on the ground took two and a half hours to reach that fire,” said Mike Alexander, director of Douglas County’s Office of Emergency Management. “Critical lead time provided by early fire detection and aerial response helped us contain the Bear Creek Fire at three acres before it destroyed a critical watershed and destroyed critical infrastructure that supplies power to significant portions of our community.”
Douglas County officials said the aerial support helicopter will be available at the discretion of Douglas County’s Office of Emergency Management at any other time if elevated fire danger warrants its activation.
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