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Go to Helicopter

Australia and New Zealand are providing support for the U.S. government’s firefighting efforts in Montana, but some of the state of Montana’s support has been refused — even when the helicopters the state wants to use to fight the fires were right over the burning forests. The reason: in 2014, the U.S. Forest Service told the state that a certain type of helicopter could not carry buckets of more than 224 gallons when fighting federal fires, but the state had five Hueys in that category that had been modified years earlier, and their buckets hold 324 gallons of water. The feds say their policy provides a margin of safety. The state says its choppers are safe, and it’s not willing to use different protocols depending on whether the fire it’s fighting is federal. (AC/AP) ...Which does the federal government most want to extinguish: fires, or state autonomy?