The story below about the air tanker being used on a burning ship 60 miles at sea reminded me of the when a helicopter with a bucket was used to fight a structure fire in the Security Building at 101 N. Third Street in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It happened on April 19, 1997 when the city was flooded, fire trucks could not get through the water, and the city water system had failed due to the flood, making hydrants useless. An air tanker may have been used on the fire also.
I have seen photos of a helicopter dropping water on the burning structure surrounded by water, but this photo was the only one I could find. If anyone has a better picture, let us know.
What other examples are you aware of when wildland firefighting apparatus was used in a non-traditional way?
Here is a video that shows an air tanker and helicopters dropping on the burning buildings in Grand Forks.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2010/04/09/fighting-structure-fires-with-an-air-crane/
Tom Risk dropped on this fire as well at the controls of PB4Y-2 Tanker 121. I was his co-pilot
One of Neptune’s P-2 also droppped on the flood/fires in Grand Forks and a tanker dropped on a structure fire in Grand Canyon National Park during nighttime, I think it was back in the late ’70s.
Firepirate Carl Dolbeare dropped on that fire, if I recall correctly. The Buffalo FD several years ago had a bulletin board in their digs with newspaper photos. I think Erickson had an AirCrane on the fire also.
I recall the P-2 drop at Grand Forks as well as the J C Penny drop but not the specific town.
At Grand Forks they ended up loading the fire departments trucks on Military Low Boys which kep them high enough to allow thier engines to continue runing. All that water and they could not pump it since the supply side hoses were soft.
I remember seeing video of a couple ht61’s dropping water on a condo fire after Katrina.
Back in the early 80’s LAFD had an entire condo complex in the San Fernando valley, that was under construction, on fire. They were using Los Angeles County Fire choppers to make drops on the interior of the complex.
In 1988 a heavy air tanker was used on a J.C. Penny’s store (I think) in Greybull, Wy.
Thanks Mike. Greybull, the home of Hawkins and Powers, which at that time had several large air tankers on contract.
Here is a link to an aerial photo showing some of the vintage aircraft at H&P after they went out of business.
http://wikimapia.org/5085270/Hawkins-Powers-aerial-firefighting-fleet
back when H&P were operating as a force in air tankers, I was fortunate enough to visit their facilities on a number of occasions. The ‘museum’ of aircraft and the ‘bonepile’ kept for parts were impressive. haven’t been to that part of Wy for a while and would like to get back up there….