There were no earth-shattering stories related to wildfire over the weekend, but here are a few that we noticed:
Fires in western Arkansas
KFSM, a television station in Arkansas, tweeted this satellite photo of fires burning in the west Arkansas counties of Le Flore, Logan, Scott and Johnson. It is dated Saturday, February 25 at 4:30 p.m.
Helicopter pilot volunteers for local fire department
A helicopter pilot who owns and operates a helicopter in Burnet, Texas has been volunteering the use of his helicopter his services as a pilot to assist the Burnet Volunteer Fire Department. When called, Rick Neeley, a professional pilot, donates his time and even the fuel for the helicopter when the fire department needs some eyes in the air to provide additional situational awareness when large vegetation fires are burning in Burnet County.
John Smallwood, a Captain with the department, was quoted by KWTX as saying: “He’s handy for us. We tell dispatch that we need help with air support and we mention his name. They have his number and he always comes out to help us.”
“(I’m) just kind of giving them some eyes in the sky and letting them see things or know things that they would have no other way of knowing,” Neely affirmed. “God’s just blessed us with a way to help and all these guys are helping out in the way they can and we just get out and help the way we can.”
Smoke from wildfires in Thailand creating issues
Smoke from wildfires is causing problems in Thailand, including health issues and the cancellation of commercial flights for at least one airline. On Sunday officials had planned to survey from a helicopter the Thai-Myanmar border area to assess the fires before sending in firefighters, but poor visibility forced the mission to be cancelled. Here is an excerpt from an article at bangkokpost.com:
The forest fires are spreading on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border, obstructing air and land transport. A thick haze of smoke is seen over most parts of the border town.
Many residents are being treated for eye irritation and breathing difficulties. The smoke crisis was expected to continue for the next few days as authorities are struggling to put out the fires, Mr Suriya said.
Police have set up security checkpoints on several major roads to warn motorists to exercise extra caution and turn on headlights while driving in poor visibility.
Nok Air, the low-cost airline serving Mae Sot, has been forced to land its aircraft in Phitsanulok for the fourth day because of the poor visibility.
Tanker 40 returns to Missoula
The jet-powered BAe-146 air tanker that Neptune Aviation is leasing from Tronos returned from Prince Edward Island in Canada today after completing a lengthy scheduled maintenance which normally takes about 21 work days. Tanker 40 arrived at Prince Edward Island on December 24 and returned to Missoula Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Both Neptune and Minden, with nine and two large air tankers on contract respectively, have been asked by the U.S. Forest Service to begin deploying their air tankers earlier than usual this year, due to the fire seasons becoming longer.
