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Aussie air tanker pilots complain about exploding fuel drums

Bill GabbertDecember 10, 2009September 6, 2018Uncategorizedair tanker, helicopter

During the large vegetation fires in southern California in 2003 the fires were so intense that the windshields on six air tankers were cracked by chunks of debris that were being hurled into the air (page D-6 in 2003 California Governor’s Blue Ribbon Report; huge 20 Mb file). One pilot saw a four by eight sheet of plywood sail past at 1,500 feet.

Currently there are over 100 fires burning in Australia, with about 20 of them being classified as “uncontrollable”. These fires, too, are burning very intensely according to a story in The Australian:

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PILOTS flying hazardous water-bombing missions over bushfire-ravaged Kinglake have described how their aircraft were rocked by the concussion of exploding fuel drums and of steel lids being flung hundreds of feet from the conflagration below.

Fire bomber aircrew fought a desperate battle to save homes but the sheer speed of the Kinglake fire proved overwhelming, said Helicorp chief Steve Graham, whose fleet includes five of the famous orange Erickson Air Cranes.

The dramatic description came from the pilot of one of four helicopters deployed to fight the Kinglake inferno on Saturday night.

“He had lids of 44 gallon drums being sent up by the exploding chemicals and fuel drums in the paddocks and in the houses,” Mr Graham told The Australian.

“Flying among all this he could physically feel the vibrations and concussion of explosions, and then there’s wires, heat and smoke.”

The undisputed king of the aerial bombers is the Air Crane, a modified version of a 1960s heavy-lift chopper capable of dumping 10,000 liters of water.

But the fire fleet this year also comprises medium-size helicopters like the Bell 212 and Bell 205 capable of hauling 1.4 tonnes of water and an assortment of fixed wing aircraft.

Aircrew are typically a mix of American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders.

Each Air Crane chopper requires a six-person crew, three pilots and three engineers responsible for a gruelling maintenance schedule demanded by the hard working machines.

Fire bombing is anything but random and requires carefully managed aerial coordination, Mr Graham said.

At the heart of the operation is a flying observer called an aerial attack coordinator.

Armed with a bank of radio sets tuned to the different frequencies of various emergency services on the ground, he receives instructions on targets and directs the water-bombing aircraft.

“If the guy on the ground says, we’ve got a real problem over on this ridge, the guy in the air says thanks very much, we’re on it, and he then directs the heavy artillery into the area that is needed,”Mr Graham said.

The capability of the Air Crane does not come cheap, with one aircraft’s running costs in the order of “tens of thousands of dollars per air hour” Mr Graham said.

Two Air Cranes are normally based out of Sydney, two in Melbourne and one in Adelaide, Mr Graham said.

Helicorp has just signed a five-year contract with the National Aerial Firefighting Centre to provide a fleet of specialised aircraft during the summer bushfire season.

Friends honor NSW park ranger

Bill GabbertDecember 10, 2009December 10, 2009Uncategorizedfatality, lodd

The park ranger who was killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday in New South Wales has been identified as Aaron Harber. The helicopter crashed in heavy fog as it was on its way to pick up other members of a rural firefighting team near Dorrigo in Australia. The pilot was seriously injured in the crash and is in critical condition with head and chest injuries.

From The Australian:
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Yesterday Harber’s friends paid tribute to a family man who worked tirelessly for the community.

“He was a big-hearted, down to earth, really nice guy who was generous with his time. The whole town is in a state of shock,” family friend Ross Pollard said.

With the National Parks and Wildlife Service since 1997, Harber moved up to Dorrigo 13 years ago with his family from Sutherland Shire in southern Sydney where he grew up.

His wife Jane Louise Geyle Harber said in a statement released yesterday afternoon, “It is with great sadness that we mourn the tragic loss of Aaron, proud husband, father and family member in a tragic helicopter crash yesterday at Dorrigo.

“While we are devastated by our loss, we take pride in the knowledge that Aaron has left a lasting legacy as a fine family man and as an active member of the Dorrigo community.

“His sacrifice will not be forgotten and he will be forever missed.”

“His family will be cared for,” Barnes said.

“We’re working with the family and we’re helping out in every way possible. We will be supporting them through this.”

“The family will be entitled to a lump sum payment from the National Parks and is also entitled to weekly payments to dependent children,” a National Parks spokesperson said.

Nearly 100 bushfires are still raging in NSW with 29 fires rated “uncontainable”.

Fires in Bundarra, Barraba and near Gwydir remain out of control, burning in and around rural properties.

“We have got a lot of fire activity from north of Tamworth to Armidale and that’s mostly a result of some dry lightning that has went through the area over the last few days,” RFS spokesman Ben Shepard said.

A statement released by NSW Health confirmed that 61 year old Bernie Schulte is in a critical but stable condition and 20 year old Cameron is in stable condition after suffering burns while defending their property in the town of Vittoria, 25km west of Bathurst.

Three helicopter incidents on fires in Australia, one fatality

Bill GabbertDecember 9, 2009September 6, 2018Uncategorizedfatality, helicopter, lodd

Numerous media outlets are reporting that a New South Wales (NSW) Parks and Wildlife ranger who was a passenger on a helicopter died when the ship crashed on Wednesday on the NSW mid-north coast. The pilot initially walked away from the accident but is in critical condition in a hospital with injuries to the head, chest, and back.

The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter was contracted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Rural Fire Service out of Glenn Innes to map a number of bushfires started by lightning overnight. It was returning to base when it crashed in a rain forest. Investigators are evaluating whether fog in the area contributed to the crash.

The pilot has over 3,000 hours of flying time.

In a second incident, two Rural Fire Service helicopters were involved in a mid-air collision when the water bucket of the higher ship contacted the rotor blades of the lower helicopter while working on a bushfire in the NSW central west on Tuesday. The four pilots were not injured and both ships landed safely, one with damage. The accident occurred in dense smoke.

The third incident occurred when the pilot of a helicopter working on a fire about 40km southeast of Tamworth was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine trouble. Again, no injuries were reported, but in the “heavy landing” the aircraft was extensively damaged.

Our sincere condolences go out to the families.

In a non-aircraft incident in Australia, two property owners were seriously burned while defending their home from a bushfire in the central-west town of Vittoria, near Bathurst on Tuesday afternoon. The 61-year old farmer is in critical condition after suffering burns over 81 percent of his body. His 20-year-old son was also injured but is in stable condition.

In the words of Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues, “Let’s be careful out there”.

Washington state “no man’s land” continues to generate opinions

Bill GabbertDecember 9, 2009September 6, 2018Uncategorizedlegislation, no man's land

Wildfire Today has previously covered the issue of the 49,000-acre Dry Creek fire (here, here, and here) and the fact that it was not within any established fire protection district in eastern Washington. At a meeting on November 23 some local residents complained that suppression of the fire was compromised or delayed because the fire was not within any tax-supported fire district. (Map)

The Daily News, “serving the lower Columbia”, has weighed in with an editorial. Here is an excerpt.

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…A few legislators at the November meeting indicated that they would offer a bill requiring firefighters to immediately engage fires outside their fire districts. Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, was one them. Chandler called it a “duty to serve” law, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Firefighters already recognize that duty and can be expected to make every effort to respond to emergency calls, regardless of fire district boundaries. There are valid concerns about liability and the expense of engaging out-of-district fires. If lawmakers want to make a contribution, they should address those concerns. But simply mandating that tax-supported fire districts ignore district boundaries is the wrong way to go.

We agree with those local fire officials who attended the November meeting and later expressed some misgivings about simply mandating that firefighters respond outside their districts, without allowing for concerns about cost and liability.

“I’m not in favor of a mandate that says we’ll fight fires in no man’s land no matter what,” Dave LaFave, chief of Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue, told Daily News reporter Barbara LaBoe. “Because that puts all the burden on the folks (within the district) who are providing for all the service. The folks who live in no man’s land are basically gambling they don’t need service, but if they do then we’re called.”

Eric Koreis, chief of Castle Rock’s Fire District 6, told LaBoe that he could “understand legislation that directs people not to stand by when they see an emergency happening. But at the same time,” he added, “I think it’s a good opportunity to work on funding and the legality of the issues to keep it fair to people who live within the fire districts.”

Exactly. No one would advocate standing down in an emergency. But there must be some incentive for landowners to allow themselves to be annexed into a fire district or create their own fire district. Simply mandating away fire district boundaries is a very quick fix that, in reality, is no fix at all.

Earl Cooley, one of the first smokejumpers, followup

Bill GabbertDecember 4, 2009December 4, 2009Uncategorizedsmokejumpers

Another article has appeared about the life of Earl Cooley, one of the first smokejumpers, who died on November 9 at the age of 98. This one is in, surprisingly, The Economist, a British publication. Here is how it begins:

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SEEN from the height of a passenger jet, the mountains of Idaho and western Montana look like the grey, wrinkled hide of a dinosaur. Closer up, from a twin-engine aircraft, those wrinkles become thousands of conifers marching over the steep and broken ground. Closer still—“My God! My chute’s not opening! Something’s wrong!”—that’s a spruce you’re plunging into, your tardy parachute lines tangling round your neck and your flailing legs kicking off branches a hundred feet above the ground. Luckily, you’re alive. Luckier still, you have a rope in your trouser pocket that lets you rappel down from the tree. And you haven’t even got to the fire yet.

Such was Earl Cooley’s introduction, on July 12th 1940 when he was 28, to the completely new science of smokejumping. After years spent trying to douse the forest fires of America’s West from aircraft—labouring skywards with water stowed in five-gallon cans and beer barrels—this was the first attempt to parachute firefighters to blazes too remote to reach by road. In the 22 years Mr Cooley was to spend doing it, it was also his closest call. He reflected later that if the spruce had not saved him, the smokejumping programme itself would not have survived—let alone become the success it is today, with 1,432 jumps made for the Forest Service last year. Back then, too many people thought it crazy. One Montana regional forester, a big-shot called Evan Kelly, had already complained to Washington that it was a waste of “honest suppression money”—dollars spent putting out fires in the old, plodding, non-flamboyant way.

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The rest of the article is HERE.

Thanks Jim

USDA Inspector General finds no misconduct in Esperanza fire deaths

Bill GabbertDecember 3, 2009August 25, 2019UncategorizedEsperanza fire, Thirtymile fire

This is a big relief, but it’s not over yet. Federal prosecutors have a total of five years to decide they will file criminal charges against firefighters.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Ben Goad in the Press-Enterprise, which has been doing a great job of covering the Esperanza fire:

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A three-year federal probe into the actions of firefighters who battled the deadly 2006 Esperanza fire found no evidence of misconduct.

In a report issued today by the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Office of Inspector General, investigators concluded that the deaths five U.S. Forest Service firefighters were the result of several factors that combined during the swirling wildfire, which overcame the men of Engine Crew 57 as they fought to save a hillside home.

“In the Esperanza Fire, these included rapid, unexpected fire behavior – propelled by the sudden emergence of fire-related weather phenomena – and the forward location of a (Forest Service) crew,” according to a summary of the report sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Investigators based their findings on interviews with 23 Forest Service firefighters and officials, who fought the blaze alongside Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency. However, only one 14 Cal Fire employees contacted by investigators agreed to be interviewed, investigators said.

The investigation is just the third of its kind and was required by a 2002 law mandating the office investigate deaths of federal firefighters who are killed in burnovers or entrapments.

The two previous investigations led to charges against two fire commanders in the deaths of federal firefighters in Washington State and Idaho.

The law was created after the 2001 Thirtymile Fire in Washington state, which killed four firefighters. U.S. Forest Service supervisor Ellreese N. Daniels was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and lying to investigators.

After the 2003 Cramer Fire in Idaho, in which two firefighters died, the U.S. attorney’s office filed charges against that fire’s incident commander, Alan Hackett, who was found to have been negligent in his management of the blaze.

Killed in the fire were Engine 57 Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, of Idyllwild; Jason McKay, 27, of Apple Valley; Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley; and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto.

Arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler was convicted for setting the fire and is sentenced to die for the crime. (End of Press-Enterprise article.)

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HERE is a link to an AP article on the same topic.

The entire 26-page report from the USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is HERE, minus the redactions.

The 7-page Transmittal Letter to the USDA and Congress is HERE. It is pretty interesting reading. The letter reveals that 23 USFS employees were interviewed by the OIG, but 14 of the 15 CalFire employees that the OIG wanted to talk to declined to be interviewed. The only CalFire person that was interviewed was the Branch Director that supervised the area of the fire in which the fatality occurred.

The letter explains that the OIG Special Agents who investigated the fire have taken basic firefighter training (S-130/190) and wildland fire investigation. The Special Agents have also visited one or more fires “to observe firefighting operations”. But even though they are proud of their qualifications to investigate a multiple fatality fire, the names of the Special Agents were redacted from the report.

HERE is a link to an article we wrote on October 23 about the delay in issuing the OIG report. The article generated 12 comments from our readers, including some from author John N. Maclean.

By the way, this is the 20th article Wildfire Today has written about the Esperanza Fire.

UPDATE at 9:44 a.m. Dec. 4

The Press-Enterprise has another article about the investigation report HERE.

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UPDATE November 12, 2013:

Esperanza Fire Factual Report, and the USDA Office of Inspector General’s Report on the fire.