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Israel contracts for 7 air tankers

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags
Air Tractor AT 802 air tanker in Israel
Air Tractor AT 802 air tanker in Israel

This year for the first time Israel will have access to a squadron of air tankers. They have contracted with two private companies, Elbit Systems and Chim Nir Flight Services, who purchased seven Air Tractor AT 802 single engine air tankers after submitting a joint bid to the Ministry of Defense.

The government of Israel saw the need for air tankers after the disastrous Carmel fire last December which burned for four days, claimed 44 lives, forced the evacuation of nearly 17,000 people and consumed 8,650 acres of land and natural forest.

Israel asked for and received air support help from many nations for the Carmel fire, including the United States which dispatched four MAFFS C-130 air tankers, but they were cancelled while still en route after the fire was controlled. Over 30 firefighting aircraft from Europe and North America responded. Israel also contracted for Evergreen’s 747 Supertanker which made two sorties dropping retardant on the fire.

Two of the seven Air Tractors will be on floats and can scoop water from the Mediterranean or the Kinneret. The Israel Air Force will have operational responsibility for the firefighting squadron.

Here is a video of Air Tractor 802s in Portugal. And in case you wonder about the music, it is “Into the Fire” by Thirteen Senses. If you watch it until the very end, you’ll see that the 802 has reversible props, which surprised me, making it possible for it to back into a parking spot.

Australia: government to buy properties from owners in high-risk bushfire areas

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

In Australia, the Victorian government has decided to implement a recommendation by the Bushfires Royal Commission, which investigated the 2009 fires, to buy properties from willing owners that are in high-risk bushfire areas. Here is an excerpt from The Age (if you go to the site, a video that is far down the page and hard to find will begin playing automatically… really annoying!)

The commission recommended a ”retreat and resettlement strategy” that would be adopted ”in areas of unacceptably high bushfire risk”. It said a buyback should focus on land ”near to or adjoining public land”, and give priority to properties that were ”damaged or destroyed by the 2009 bushfires”.

The Victorian government has set aside $5 million for the first stage of the property buying project.

In other down-under fire news, the Country Fire Authority will receive $67 million to build or upgrade 60 fire stations and to acquire 101 new firefighting vehicles over the next 12 months.

Thanks Dick

Photos of MAFFS training at Boise

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

MAFFS air tankers training at Boise

The National Interagency Fire Center posted on their Facebook page (yes, they have a Facebook page!) nine photos of the Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) C-130s air tankers from North Carolina and Wyoming training at Boise this week. Here are a couple of the pics.

 

MAFFS air tankers training at Boise

 

Magicvalley.com has an article about the training. They also have some excellent photos of the C-130s, including some taken inside the aircraft.

Texas has received 25 FEMA grants for fires this year

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized14 Comments on Texas has received 25 FEMA grants for fires this year

While Texas Governor Rick Perry has been whining that his state has not received enough money from the federal government for firefighting assistance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been quietly shipping mega-bucks to his state. Here is a list of 25 FEMA Fire Management Assistance declarations and grants for the state of Texas since January 1, 2011:

Texas FEMA fire grants 2011
From the Federal Emergency Management Agency

These FEMA grants for the state of Texas, whose Governor has flirted with the idea of seceding from the United States, cover 75 percent of the state’s costs for firefighting. The amount of federal money given to Texas for fires this year is not yet known, since the costs are still being incurred and the state has not submitted all of their claims for financial assistance to the federal government.

These grants are for specific incidents and are different from FEMA’s Major Disaster Declarations, one of which has not been approved for the Texas fires this year. Those are not awarded as often as the Fire Management Assistance grants, but Texas has received 16 of them since 2000. In fact, Texas has benefited more than any other state from federal Major Disaster Declarations.

Here is a list of the ten states that have had the most FEMA Major Disaster Declarations since 1953:

FEMA top ten states major disaster declarations
From the Federal Emergency Management Agency

We feel for the families of the two firefighters that died while fighting fires in Texas recently, and we have sympathy for the individuals that have lost property in the fires. But if and when Texas secedes from the United States as threatened and either forms their own country or becomes a Mexican state, they will have to find a new source for bailing them out of their costs for fires, floods, and hurricanes.

And perhaps, while asking other U.S. taxpayers for money, Texas should reconsider the bill that passed both houses of their legislature that cuts the funding of the Texas Forest Service’s Wildfire and Emergency Program by more than 30%. Or, maybe they should use the $2 billion rainy day fund they are sitting on.

 

Thanks Dick

Air tanker pilot hits wrong button, firefighters wash cars

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

OOPS!

From Bigcountryhomepage.com, reported by Tim Johnston:

Bigcountryhomepage.com

The Texas Forest Service sent out workers with fire trucks, but not to put out flames. This time it was to wash off fire retardant that the TFS admits was accidentally dropped on a North Abilene neighborhood.

According to the TFS, the plane was heading for a fire, but had to cancel the flight because of the cloud cover. The Forest Service explains that their tankers are not allowed to land with a cargo full of the retardant. So the course of action is to release it onto an approved drop site.

However, Sunday afternoon the TFS says the plane’s pilot accidentally released roughly 300 gallons of the pinkish fire retardant from roughly 1,000 feet in the air.

The accidental drop was mainly kept to the blocks just east of North Judge Ely, and most of Westheimer Street was covered.

Calls came in to bigcountryhomepage.com that “pink stuff was raining down out of the sky.”

“As it came over this area, he [the pilot] punched the wrong button, and about 300 gallons of his load came out,” explained Lewis Kearney of the Texas Forest Service.

Meanwhile, the Forest Service immediately began to hose off the cars and other property that was covered in retardant.

“I heard something from in the house, and all of a sudden I saw them spraying my car, and I was kind of freaked out because I wasn’t sure what had happened,” said Sarah Ray, whose car was freshly cleaned by the TFS.

It reminds me of when air tankers flew out of Ontario airport in southern California a few decades ago. There was one lady who lived near the end of the runway who frequently complained about the noise from the huge radial engines on the air tankers. One day when a tanker was taking off it had a mechanical problem and had to drop the load of retardant in order to increase their chances of returning to the airport and landing safely–which it did. But guess where that retardant landed. Correct, and the lady was not happy. Soon after that, air tankers stopped using Ontario as an air tanker base.

Oh, and there was the time that the Alpine (California) Fire Department’s official Chief car got hit with retardant when he was at a fire and the Chief put in a claim to the U.S. Forest Service for several thousand dollars so he could repaint it. The claim was denied.