<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"The National Guard used two Black Hawk helicopters to dump large buckets of water on a wildfire nearly 300 miles away from their base of operations.The DNR said the fire is the largest wildfire in Wisconsin in 33 years. It has covered more than 9,000 acres and has destroyed 47 buildings, including 15 homes.Click here to view photos of the fire.Madison-based helicopter pilot Lt. Colonel Stephen Watkins returned to Madison after more than 12 hours fighting the fire from the air.\"We commented as we were flying: it was pretty tough to see some of the houses are just completely gone,\" Watkins said. \"Between the two aircraft, we did about 60 trips from various dip sites and put down about 35,000 gallons of water.\"The DNR said with Memorial Day a little more than a week away, everyone in the badger state needs to be careful not to spark another massive threat and evacuation.\"Right now, we had to evacuate about 60 people and they're being housed at the local high school,\" Catherine Koele with DNR said. \"We've been lucky because this is a seasonal area, and a lot of the people are not at their homes right now.\"Watkins said training has paid off for the mission.\"This is one of the great things about being in the National Guard: we serve the people of Wisconsin,\" he said.DNR officials said the fire north of Hayward is about 98 percent contained. Gov. Scott Walker will visit the area Thursday morning to survey the damage. Walker declared areas of Bayfield and Douglas counties as disaster areas in light of the fire damage reported.\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wisn.com/article/national-guard-responds-to-douglas-county-wildfire-1/6315454>