At a press conference today Mike Bryant, Deputy Fire Chief the Los Angeles County Fire Department, provided some preliminary information about the deaths of the two firefighters we reported on August 30.
Captain Tedmund D. Hall, 47, and Firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Quinones, 35, (left to right above) were working with 65 other firefighters attempting to protect Camp 16 from the Station fire. As the fire got near the camp, Quinones and Hall got into a pickup truck in order to reposition it. Somehow during that repositioning the truck left the road and tumbled down the slope, ending up 800 feet below the road.
Photo: Jason Redmond
The fire overran Camp 16 (above) totally destroying the facilities, according to the Chief Bryant. “Many” firefighters suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation, but all were treated and released.
There will be a formal inquiry, including a serious accident review.
Services are being planned for Quinones and Hall, but have not yet been finalized.
Again, our condolences go out to the families and co-workers.
In a news conference late today officials announced that two firefighters with the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) died today in a vehicle accident while working on the Station fire near Mt. Gleason in southern California. The accident happened earlier this afternoon, and the families of the fallen firefighters have been notified, they said at the news conference.
Details about the accident were not provided, but television footage showed a truck that had rolled over.
lacfd *Station IC* Report of fire department vehicle over the side 400+ feet with unknown outcome. Copters unable to get in to search. Keep them in our prayers.
Our sincere condolences to the families and co-workers of the firefighters.
We will update this as more information becomes available.
The LA Times has the scoop on the fleet of air tankers being used in southern California:
“Despite state and local budget cuts, crews have the air support they need to handle the Station fire, officials said.
The state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed last month canceled the contract for California’s largest firefighting tool, a DC-10 jet, to save taxpayers about $7 million. It was replaced with a contract for two DC-10s on a pay-as-you-go basis, but at a higher hourly rate. But after several fires hit Northern California earlier this month, authorities reversed that decision and signed a 90-day contract for the plane, which costs taxpayers an average of $43,404 a day.
“The determination was made that it would cost more to have it on an as-needed basis than on an exclusive-use contract,” said Cal Fire aviation chief Bill Payne.
DC-10 drops on the Station fire near Acton, California, August 30, 2009. Photo: Irfan Khan
For many Southern California residents whose homes were threatened by the Station fire, the appearance of the DC-10 Saturday at the Station fire’s northern and southern flanks came as a welcome relief. The plane could be seen making drops of its bright red flame retardant on the hills of the Angeles National Forest, then making sharp banks as it turned around for additional passes.
Before the arrival of the DC-10, officials had been relying on helicopters and some smaller fixed-wing aircraft to drop water and fire retardant on the Station fire.
The U.S. Forest Service contracts a Martin Mars air tanker, sometimes called a “Super Scooper,” which carries a flame retardant foam concentrate. But that plane has had mechanical problems and has not been used to fight the Station fire. In addition, Los Angeles County has a contract for two additional air tankers, which it leases from the government of Quebec. But those planes — which are CL-415s — are not available until Tuesday, said Payne.
Initially, officials thought the county’s planes would not arrive in the area until Thursday. But at a press conference today, officials said the CL-415s would be available starting Monday and that a second DC-10 also had been requested.
The state will have to pay for that second DC-10 on a pay-as-you-go basis. According to its agreement with the contractor, Victorville-based 10 Tanker Air Carrier, Cal Fire guarantees to pay the company a minimum of $66,060 a day for a minimum of five days, Payne said. That amounts to about $330,000.”
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The above article from the LA Times refers to the Martin Mars as a “Super Scooper”, but as we were reminded by Kelly Andersson, that term is usually reserved for the Bombardier (formerly Canadair) CL-415 or CL-215. We also corrected the name of the CL-415 in the article, incorrectly referred to as “CL-14”.
Kelly documented some of the history of the SuperScoopers in a 1998 article that appeared in Wildland Firefighter magazine.
Thanks Kelly.
By the way, the difference between the CL-215 and the 415 is that the 415 has turboprop engines, and has an updated cockpit, aerodynamics enhancements and changes to the water-release system as well.
Hundreds of Greeks staged a silent protest in Athens on Friday to condemn the failure of the government to stop the devastating fires that burned into the suburbs of Athens recently. About a thousand protesters assembled in front of the Greek parliament to express their outrage to the scandal-plagued administration that “allowed” a similar fire storm in 2007.
Approximately 65 homes were destroyed and 143 others were damaged in the fires that burned near Athens between Friday and Tuesday of last week.
The two main political parties are about evenly matched in Greece. If the dissatisfaction with the administration caused by the wildfires gains momentum, it could result in many of the current office-holders being replaced by candidates from the opposing party during the next election.
San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) is hoping to receive approval of their plan to turn off the electricity to large sections of San Diego County during periods of high fire danger. Some have complained that this is primarily a strategy that is less expensive than to harden their infrastructure against strong winds.
But they are taking a small step in the right direction, in that they are replacing some of their wooden power poles with steel poles. They already have about 700 steel poles and expect to replace 1,200 wooden poles in 2009. Ultimately they have plans to replace some poles in the communities of Alpine, Valley Center, Escondido, El Cajon, and Bonita.
That is the good news. The rest of the story is that they have 75,000 wooden poles in areas defined as “high” and “very high” fire risk by CalFire. At the current rate of replacement, all of those wooden poles would be replaced by 2071.
A Be-200 makes a demonstration drop, using the colors of the Russian (and U.S.) flag
A purpose-built, amphibious, Russian-made air tanker will be at Santa Maria, California on September 26 looking for work. Well, not looking for work right away exactly, since the Be-200 has not been approved by the FAA or the Interagency Air Tanker Board, both of which could be large hurdles to overcome. It is expected that the aircraft will do some demonstrations while it is at Santa Maria.
David Baskett, a Santa Maria businessman and founder of the now defunct Pacific Skyway airline, has been working with the Russian government to bring the plane to the U.S. Mr. Baskett envisions the air tanker, also known as Altair, replacing the aging air tankers presently being used that have an average age of 50.
A Be-200 air tanker, if I did the conversions correctly, can carry up to 3,000 gallons of water or retardant. It also can carry foam concentrate which can be mixed with the water in the tank. The amphibious plane has scoops on the bottom much like the amphibious CL-415 making it possible to skim across a body of water to refill its tank. The Be-200 can also land on a runway and refill with retardant.
The aircraft was designed specifically in the 1990s as an air tanker, one of the few large air tankers that can make that claim. It made its first flight in 2003.
Here is a 17-second video of the aircraft making a drop in Athens, Greece. The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.
(THE VIDEOS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
The 6.5-minute video below appears to be a promotional video about the plane. I want one.
