Two large fires in northern Mexico’s state of Coahuila, 60 miles south of the Texas border, have burned 245,000 acres since lighting started the fires on March 16. Mexico has asked the United States and Canada for air tankers to assist in suppressing the fires. Wildfire Today has learned that the U.S. is considering dispatching a National Incident Management Organization team (NIMO) to help manage the fires, but no decisions have yet been made.
As we reported on Tuesday, the Comisión Nacional Forestal (CONAFOR, Mexico’s National Forest Service) has contracted with Evergreen for their Boeing 747 Supertanker. It will be based and reloaded at Lackland Air Force base near San Antonio, Texas, from which Evergreen expects one hour turnarounds to the fires. The 747 arrived at Lackland Tuesday afternoon. The Supertanker can carry up to 21,000 gallons of retardant, seven times the capacity of conventional “large” air tankers. Three other air tankers will also be working on the fires.
