Fire helicopter struck by lightning in Idaho

From the AP, via KXMB.com:

MCCALL, Idaho  -Four people were injured when lightning struck a firefighting helicopter in central Idaho while it was on the ground.

None of the employees of Siller Brothers, Inc., a contract firefighting company, suffered life-threatening injuries in Tuesday evening’s incident, but they were transported to hospitals in the region for treatment.

The Sikorsky S64E Air-Crane helicopter was on a national contract with the Payette National Forest to help fight forest fires in the region.

The incident Tuesday night at about 8:45 a.m. took place just as the four crew members were doing end-of-day maintenance.

They were tying the chopper down as high winds hit the area following heavy rain and lightning.

Damage to the aircraft is still being surveyed.

 

Elvis arrives at Oshkosh

On Saturday we told you that Elvis, one of the Erickson Aircranes, was going to make an appearance at the air show at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Well, he made it and appears to be one of the most popular attractions there, according to Wired Magazine.

Photo: Jason Paur, Wired.com

An article at Wired has more photos and information.

Thanks Kelly.

Wildfire in Iceland–firefighters denied helicopter

Photo: Eyglo Svala Arnarsdottir

I have always been intrigued by Iceland. Unlike it’s neighbor Greenland, there is quite a bit of vegetation on the small island nation. About one-fourth of the area of Iceland has a continuous plant cover.

But today was the first time that I had heard of a wildfire there.

On Monday, firefighters there fought a fire from 5 PM until 7 AM. It was a walk-in through difficult terrain. They asked for a helicopter to assist, presumably with a water bucket, and the request was denied…twice.

From the Iceland Review:

The wildfire occurred in the same place as Friday,” (head of the fire department)  Asmundur Jónsson said. The area is 420 meters above sea level, up in the mountain. The road leading there is treacherous and firemen have to walk through lava and thick moss, sometimes reaching their knees. A rescue squad transported equipment and supplies to the fire fighters.

The firemen experimented with additives in the water, intended to increase its effectiveness. The experiment went well, Jónsson said.

“I have been trying to get the helicopter twice and have been denied both times. They said that since no property was under risk in the moss fire in the heath east of Kleifarvatn Lake and no summer houses were in jeopardy, there was no need for it. However, many centuries’ old vegetation was being destroyed.”

Jónsson said that a source of water was only three kilometers away from the area. Being a difficult path to travel by foot, it would have been so easy for the helicopter. “It would have taken care of the fire in an hour or so,” he explained. “The conditions there are tremendous.”

Alternatives to the use of helicopters

In the previous article some former firefighters question the use of helicopters and weigh the risks vs. benefits of using the machines on wildfires. There is no question that helicopter operations have an inherent risk, but so do some of the alternatives.

Rich Fairbanks, a former Forest Service firefighter and a current fire specialist with The Wilderness Society, said fires in wilderness could be allowed to burn to rocky ridges and rivers, where they’ll go out naturally so that “expensive and risky helicopters” would not have to be used. Sure, there are some places where “fire use” fires are appropriate, but limited or passive fire suppression allows fires to get larger, exposing firefighters to additional weeks or months of hazards from snags, steep terrain, vehicle accidents, and to one of the largest killers of firefighters, heart attacks.

Aggressive fire suppression, using overwhelming force with all of the available tools, reduces the overall risks to firefighters and the public, while also minimizing long term smoke exposure to communities.

The alternatives to helicopters have their own risks. I was on a fire in Colorado where the Incident Commander was very helicopter risk-adverse, and wanted to minimize their use. We needed to place a radio repeater on a mountain top and he vetoed using a helicopter, ordering that a pack train of horses be used to haul the equipment instead.

On the way up the mountain on a hiking trail, something spooked the horses and it turned into a rodeo. The horses bucked and ran, shedding their loads of expensive radios which tumbled down the steep slope. The equipment was destroyed.

If humans had been the cargo, it is likely that there would have been some serious injuries.

It took a couple of days to obtain a replacement repeater, which was then flown to the mountain. In the meantime, communications on the fire were not adequate, which compromised the safety of the firefighters.