Wintergreen
Nelson County, Virginia
If you were anywhere near Beech Grove, Wintergreen, Nellysford and other areas close by Monday morning you probably noticed an army helicopter carry a huge red bucket of water. The exercise was practice for the VA Army National Guard. They were honing their skills to be ready in the event of a real forest fire here in the mountains.
As you can see from the video above shot by BRL Mountain Photographer, Paul Purpura, they were dipping the 500 gallon bucket into the water reservoir at Wintergreen Resort, then flying off with it to a practice drop zone on Fortune’s Ridge not too far away from Beech Grove Road in the valley.
Down below are more of Paul’s photos from Monday morning, July 8, 2024.
Chief Sheets also told us that only about 1% of the capacity in the 5 million gallon tank was used for the water drop exercise Monday morning.
