19-year-old Montanan fights CA fires

Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (2) – 9/17/20

Firefighting runs in the Blaine family household—Ashli Blaine is following in her father’s footsteps and heading to California to help fight fires. At just 19-years-old, Blaine, a Billings-area native who has been flying since she was 13, is the pilot of a 40,000-pound CH-47 Chinook helicopter and tasked with dropping water to extinguish and control fires. She was fighting fires right up until her fall semester began at Rocky Mountain College.

“You could say it’s the family trade,” Blaine told CBS News. “My dad’s been fighting fires for close to 30 years now. As soon as I got into flying I knew that was going to be one of my end goals was to get into firefighting.”