Firefighter hit by car, loses leg
From FirefighterCloseCalls:
On Thursday, a North Carolina Firefighter was struck at the scene of a wildland fire. Due to smoke conditions, there was zero visibility as the Candor Firefighters (Montgomery County) arrived on the scene at 1414 hours – and were walking to the rear of the truck – when a passenger vehicle struck FF Earl Harrington.
Initially, as Firefighters went to the rear of the truck – to put out traffic cones and get set up to fight the fire, a passing Jeep hit the rig, pinning FF Harrington between the vehicles. A second vehicle, also traveling eastbound on the two-lane rural road, then hit the Jeep.
FF Harrington was flown out and taken to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. As a result of his injuries, his left leg had to be amputated. He is listed in stable condition with additional surgery anticipated.
The driver of the passenger vehicle was taken to Moore Regional Hospital for evaluation. We wish FF Harrington a very successful recovery.
Fire preparedness billboard
The Smokey Bear Twitter account sent out this photo yesterday:
Aerial firefighting training for National Guard pilots
From CAL FIRE:
CAL FIRE and the California National Guard are holding their annual fire aviation training at the CAL FIRE Academy in Ione and Lake Pardee in Amador County. CAL FIRE will be instructing National Guard helicopter pilots and crew members in basic incident management and firefighting operations so they can safely assist fire agencies in battling massive wildfires.
There was a hotshot crew with the same color pink hard hats. Could easily see them from the air. Can’t remember which crew.
SEI Bambi does offer a bucket transport carrier which looks a lot like a farm implement ( i.e.disc) carrier which works very well. Maybe it is flight line tradition but the Stockton Chinook folks like their trailers. Most of the time the Chinooks are stationed at a Cal Fire Air Attack Base and as with other State air resources are required to be airborne in fifteen minutes. Each Chinook has a crew of four Guard and one experience in aerial fire fighting State captain. So when Mother Nature is getting tough a 9-1-1- call will be answered by two (or more) S2T’s, type two helicopter (s) and usually two Guard Chinooks with 2000 gallon buckets. This years training at Ione Cal Fire Academy had 260 “students” for the three days.
Know one ask about the pink paint. Lots of work and research went into getting the paint approved for Guard helicopter. Crayola brand tempura paint was the winner. Only Crayola! Comes in lots of colors but pink seems to work the best for all those eyes out there. No paint on the nose as the rotor wash dissolves the paint and ends on the windscreen. just trivia.
Just curious…what are they doing with that wagon in the middle picture?
It’s just a guess, Barbara, but it looks like there is a Bambi bucket on the little wagon. Maybe they use the wagon to haul the bucket around the helibase, rather than drive a truck out to the helicopter.
Thank you. Darn these old eyes!