Video: aerial firefighting in Europe

Here is a video that I ran across on AerialFirefighting.com’s Facebook page. It features CL-215/415s fighting fire from the air. I’m guessing it was shot in Spain or Portugal. The crews on those scoopers seem to enjoy their jobs!

The description on YouTube:

Video del 43 grupo “hecho a mano”. Demuestran lo divertidos que son cuando hace falta.

The description in English, according to Google Translate:

Video of 43 group “handmade”. They show how funny they are when needed.

Don’t be thrown off by the first 55 seconds. It really is about aerial firefighting.

Aero Union is appealing the cancellation of their air tanker contract

P-3 Orion-1
A P-3 Orion drops on a fire near Cedar City, Utah in 2006. From zionhelitack.blogspot.com

The CEO of Aero Union, Britt Gourley,said the company has appealed through the judicial process the U.S. Forest Service’s cancellation of their contract for Aero Union’s eight P-3 Orion air tankers. The USFS terminated the contract July 29, 2011, saying safety inspections were not being completed, and shortly after that the company laid off 60 of their employees. At that time, six of the eight P-3s were active on contracts. This left only 11 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts with the USFS.

Aero Union auctionMr. Gourley told Wildfire Today on Monday that after their contract was cancelled halfway through the fire season, and now with the aircraft sitting for almost six months, their financial situation has forced them to sell their assets. As we reported on January 1, Aero Union has put their aircraft up for auction, which will culminate in the opening of sealed bids on February 28 at McClellan, California.

Mr. Gourley said his company complied with all of the requirements in the USFS contract and claims the P-3s have “always been meticulously maintained and continuosly airworthy”. He hopes the aircraft will be flying over fires again this summer, if not in the United States, then in another country.

Mr. Gourley feels the USFS has a strong predisposition toward the C-130J as an air tanker platform and is unwilling to give serious consideration to other aircraft. He said another option for an air tanker would be to acquire military surplus P-3s and “re-wing” them with current technology and kits developed by Lockheed which cost about $18 million each.

It would be surprising if a private company could work out the finances for the procurement and then the USFS contracting arrangements to purchase and operate new C-130Js with a purchase price of about $90 million each. But if the USFS adopts a different air tanker paradigm, in which the aircraft are government-owned and contractor operated, then it’s a whole new ball game. It is hard to imagine the U.S. Government coming up with the money to buy a fleet of new air tankers. A more realistic variation on this is to acquire some gently-used C-130Js that have been thrown away by the military.

It is hard to understand how the US Government can come up with trillions of dollars for military aircraft, ships, and equipment, but the USFS has to contract for air tanker platforms that have been deemed no longer worthy of being used by the military.

MAFFS II
MAFFS II, built by Aero Union and sold to the USFS. Photo by Aero Union

In addition to the eight Aero Union P-3s that are up for auction, the company is selling intellectual property consisting of patents, jigs, drawings, and tooling for their MAFFS II 3,000-gallon slide-in retardant tank system for C-130J. The USFS has already purchased eight of these second generation units which are used by Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units on wildfires if all of the privately owned air tankers are already working on fires. If a new company purchases the MAFFS II intellectual property and manufactures more, you could have one of your own for approximately $5.2 million.

The reason Mr. Gourley of Aero Union contacted us was so that he could ask for our email address in order to reply in writing to our January 1 article about the demise of their company and the current auction. Below is his letter:

Continue reading “Aero Union is appealing the cancellation of their air tanker contract”

3,500-year-old tree burns in Florida

Senator tree
"The Senator" tree, May, 2006. Photo by Ashley Schmidt

One of the world’s oldest cypress trees, estimated to be 3,500 years old, burned Monday in a wildfire in Seminole County, Florida. A spokesperson for Seminole County Fire Rescue said investigators determined that a brush fire started nearby and spread to the tree which was known as “The Senator”. The 165-foot-tall tree lost its top in a hurricane in the mid -1920’s, leaving the tree at 118 feet. Another portion of the top and several branches broke off during the fire, forcing firefighters to back off. Soon after that the tree collapsed, leaving about 20 to 25 feet remaining.

A video report can be found HERE.

Poll: Most significant wildfire stories of 2011

Vote on the most significant wildfire stories of 2011.

2011 was a busy wildfire year in some areas of the United States. In Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, it was  extremely busy, in fact several records were set for the largest fires in recorded history and number of acres burned.

DC10 dropping
Tanker-911, a DC 10 airtanker, drops retardant on the Wallow fire above Greer, AZ; the Del Rosa Hotshots wait in a safety zone and watch the drop, June 11, 2011. USFS photo by Kari Greer

As we did for 2009 and 2010, we are conducting a poll, allowing our readers to determine which were the most significant wildfire events of 2011. We sifted through the 641 articles we wrote in 2011 and compiled the list below which includes a short description of each of the nominated topics. Below the list is the poll. The line of duty fatalities are not listed. While they are very significant of course, we don’t want to try to rank them, one over the other.

By the way, you can still vote, if you have not already, in the 2009 and 2010 polls.

Nominations for the most significant wildfire stories of 2011

January 13: Director of college fire program arrested. Retired Chief Jerry Austin was arrested for stealing $500,000 from students in the Fire Technology progam at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, east of Los Angeles.

February 7: Bushfires in Western Australia burn 64 homes.

April 30: Georgia swamp fire burns 309,000 acres. Honey Prairie fire in Georgia starts, eventually burns 309,000 acres in Georgia and Florida. In the December 15, 2011 update on InciWeb it was listed at only 76% contained.

May 15: Northern Alberta fire burns 400+ homes. Fire burns 40% of the homes, over 400, in the northern Alberta town of Slave Lake.

May 29: Wallow fire largest in Arizona history. It burned 538,049 acres and destroyed 32 residences.

June 13: USFS management of the air tanker fleet. This has been an onging story for years but came close to making it into the mainstream on June 12 when the Washington Post wrote an article titled “Firefighting planes have perhaps been too long on job”. At that time there were 18 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts. By late summer there were only 11, compared with 44 in 2002.

June 26: Las Conchas fire largest fire in New Mexico history. It burned 43,000 acres in the first 14 hours, ultimately blackened 156,593 acres, and burned 63 residences.

July 5: Nine USFS firefighters injured in crash. Nine U. S. Forest Service firefighters were injured when their crew carrier crashed in southern California

July 6: CAL FIRE budget cuts. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection suffered a $34 million budget reduction resulting in 730 fewer seasonal firefighters, reducing engine staffing from four to three, and cancelling the exclusive use contract with the DC-10 air tanker.

August 15: Aero Union closes their doors. Aero Union which owned 8 large P3 air tankers comprising 42% of the U.S. large air tanker fleet shut down after the U.S. Forest Service cancelled their contract saying certain required safety inspections were not completed. This left 11 large air tankers, down from 44 in 2002.

September 5: Fires in Texas. This was a year-long event due to drought, but especially notable were the fires on Labor Day weekend in Travis and Bastrop counties which burned over 1,600 homes.

September 12: Pagami Creek fire in Minnesota. After burning about 130 acres while being monitored for 12 days, the fire took off under strong winds and burned 92,000 acres, costing over $22.3 million to suppress.

October 5: Three engine burnovers on same day in South Dakota. On three separate fires on the same windy day, three engines and their crews were burned over by wildfires. At least four firefighters suffered burn injuries.

November 7: Santa Maria air tanker base to reopen. After almost 3 years of controversy and criticism over the 2009 closing of the Santa Maria air tanker base near Santa Barbara, California, the Forest Supervisor of the Los Padres National Forest decided to staff it again.

November 12: Congressman Rehberg drops suit against fire department. Facing an election for the U.S. Senate, congressman Denny Rehberg dropped his lawsuit against the Billings, MT fire department in which he sought monetary reimbursement for a wildfire that burned some undeveloped land owned by the congressman and his wife.

December 1: USFS to contract for 7 to 35 “next generation” air tankers. The U.S. Forest Service issued a request for proposals for “new generation air tankers”, saying they may contract for 7 to 35 turbine-powered large air tankers over the next several years.

Choose THREE 

Poll: what were the most significant wildfire stories of 2011?

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Report: Aviation Management Directorate to be realigned

You can put this in the rumor category for now, but Wildfire Today has been informed that the Department of Interior is considering a realignment of the office that manages their aviation program, including wildfire aviation. The Aviation Management Directorate (AMD) which now reports to the National Business Center (NBC) may be renamed and moved to the DOI’s Office of Wildland Fire Coordination. If the changes being considered actually take place, and it could happen as early as April, the new name will be “Office of Aviation Services”, or OAS. If “OAS” sounds familiar it is because until about 2004 the organization was called “Office of Aircraft Services”, or OAS.

We talked to Stew Walker, the Deputy Associate Director of the AMD who told us that the changes we had heard about were “pre-decisional”. Beyond that he would not comment and referred us to Warren Christopher, the NBC’s Chief of Staff. Calls to Mr. Christopher were not returned.

The AMD’s function is “…to raise the safety standards, increase the efficiency, and promote the economical operation of aircraft activities in the Department of the Interior”.  We don’t know if that will change if they move from the NBC over to the Office of Wildland Fire Coordination, which is responsible for the coordination, integration, and oversight of wildland fire management programs within the Department of the Interior (Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service).

Previously shoe-horning the aviation program into the NBC which handles information technology, acquisition, administrative operations, financial management, personnel, and payroll, seemed like an unusual fit. Perhaps the thought is that it is more logical for aviation to work for the wildland fire group than an administrative services organization.

As we understand it, here are the past, present, and pre-decisional rumored organizational structures:

Until about 2004:

  • Office of the Secretary of Interior
  • —Office of Aircraft Services (there may have been a layer between the OAS and the Secretary’s office)

From about 2004 until the present:

  • Office of the Secretary of Interior
  • —-Asst. Secretary, Policy, Management and Budget
  • ——-National Business Center
  • ———-Aviation Management Directorate

Possible new structure, perhaps beginning around April, 2012:

  • Office of Secretary of Interior
  • —-Asst. Secretary, Policy, Management and Budget
  • ——-Office of Wildland Fire Coordination
  • ———–Office of Aviation Services

This is not confirmed and should be treated as a rumor for now.