In the last week the U.S. Forest Service has added two air tankers to the roster of Call When Needed (CWN) activations, to bring the total up to 15. With the 13 air tankers on Exclusive Use (EU) arrangements, there are now 28 working on USFS contracts. Five of them are Very Large Air Tankers (VLAT) — four DC-10s and one 747. With the two military C-130 MAFFS aircraft that have been mobilized, the grand total is 30.

The last two brought are VLATs — T-911 (a DC-10) and T-944 (a Boeing 747). They had both worked CWN with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for a short time until August 5 when they moved over to the USFS on a CWN contract.

Here is the list of CWN air tankers currently working for the USFS:

1. DC-10, T-914
2. MD-87, T-104
3. MD-87, T-102
4. MD-87, 103
5. MD-87, 107
6. B737, T-137
7. BAe-146, T-12
8. BAe-146, T-41
9. BAe-146, T-02
10. BAe-146, T-03
11. BAe-146, T-01
12. RJ85, T-164
13. RJ85, T-163
14. DC-10, T-911
15. B747, T-944

On July 28 we posted the list of 13 air tankers on EU contracts.

Having access to 30 large air tankers (LAT) and VLATs enables more routine use of the concept of quickly attacking new fires with overwhelming force from both the ground and the air. This is an approach that can be useful anytime, except during strong winds, to reduce the number of new fires that grow to become large. But, firefighters on the ground have to be available to move in quickly to take advantage of the temporary slowing of the fire’s spread. With the federal agencies having firefighter recruitment and retention issues, this second part of the equation is not always a given.

This concept is especially valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic when fire personnel are adapting to the situation with new procedures that can reduce their threat of infection, but may also reduce to a certain extent their total daily production on the fireline. Fewer large fires can also mean less toxic smoke that can exacerbate respiratory issues suffered by COVID patients.