Day three of the effort to battle the McCann Canyon fire south of Kilgore on Thursday with Nebraska Emergency Management taking over the incident.

Chris Shroeder of NEMA spoke with KVSH Radio this morning to report that 2 National Guard Helicopters arrived on the scene yesterday to add aerial support to the fire fighting effort. NEMA will continue to utilize local fire departments for ground crew operations to monitor the fire and extinguish hot spots. Schroeder said they will continue to focus on the canyon area where the fire originated and adjacent canyons where the fire has spread. Thursday’s cooler weather with a chance of rain is expected to help efforts.

The fire broke out early Tuesday afternoon and was pushed out of the canyons by high winds and eventually burned a little over 7,000 acres. Local volunteers with everything from grass fire fighting rigs to bulldozers and disc plows aided in the fire suppression effort.

There have been no injuries reported at this time. Four homes were threatened but all were protected from the wildfire.