Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

Questions and “answers” from the USFS about the air tanker program

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 15 Comments on Questions and “answers” from the USFS about the air tanker program
Tanker 45, a P2, drops on the Whoopup fire, July 18, 2011
Tanker 45, a P2, drops on the Whoopup fire, July 18, 2011. Photo: Bill Gabbert

In 2002, two mid-air wing failures of large air tankers caused five deaths and resulted in the number of contracted air tankers being dramatically reduced by eliminating some of the oldest World War II era bombers that had been converted to air tankers. At that time we had 44. Today there are 11 on standard exclusive use contracts. Even after five studies since 1995 about the future of the air tanker fleet, the U.S. Forest Service still has not made a decision about the future of the program and how to reconstitute the fleet.

On May 19, 2011, the Chief of the Forest Service, Tom Tidwell, spoke on the issue in a Senate hearing:

[Senator Lisa] MURKOWSKI: What is the strategy for — for replacement of the aging air tanker fleet? And where do you see that going?

TIDWELL: Well, I was hoping to have that completed by now. But the RAND Corporation that’s doing the study for us have not completed their work. We’re hoping to get that here in the next month or so. And so once we receive that, that’ll probably be the last piece of information we need to move forward with our strategy.

Chief Tidwell was referring to the Rand Corporation study that was due in January, 2011. There are reports that the USFS has received it and it is heavy in its recommendations for scooper-type air tankers. But there is a strong bias against that type of air tanker within the higher levels of the USFS. So they are going to pay for still another study, probably hoping that this next one will give them the answer that they want. The USFS paid Rand $840,092. It is unknown what this next study will cost the taxpayers.

At another Senate hearing June 14, 2011, Chief Tidwell said:

In the next 10 years more than half of our large air tankers will need to be replaced and we are studying the options and will be making a recommendation to you by the end of the summer.

We are now well past the June-July and “end of the summer” deadlines promised by Chief Tidwell.

We submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on September 19, 2011 to obtain a copy of the Rand study, but we have not yet received it.

On September 23 we submitted some questions to the USFS about the future of the air tanker program. Yesterday we received the reply below from spokesperson Jennifer Jones.

Unfortunately, question number 6 was not answered. Is the USFS going to wait until this next report I’ll call “Rand Revisited” is received to make decisions about what recommendations to make to Congress? For such an important issue, and one that has languished for almost 10 years, it is inconceivable that the USFS still does not have a plan, or even a time line to develop one. Or, if there is a time line, why it is secret. Continued dithering and indecisiveness by the U. S. Forest Service is not acceptable.

The “answers” to our questions, as provided by the U. S. Forest Service, are in italics.

=================================================================

This web site, dated August 15, 2011, says the USFS intended to award a non-competitive contract to the Rand Corporation for another study, Rand’s second study, about the air tanker and helicopter situation.

Questions:

1. Is the amount of the contract $7 million? If not, what is the amount?

Due to the responses received expressing interest in this contract, the U.S. Forest Service decided to withdraw its sole source determination.  A competitive acquisition will be conducted.  There is no fixed amount for the contract.  Bidders will submit prices and the price will depend on who is awarded the contract.  Price is one of the factors that will be considered during the contract award process.  There currently is no contract in place.  The government develops an Independent Government Estimate that is used during the evaluation of cost proposals.  The contract value will be identified at the time of contract award. 

2. What are the deliverables, and what is the due date?

The deliverables are still being finalized and will be identified/included in the Statement of Work or the Specification that is included in the Solicitation.  A due date will be negotiated with whoever is awarded the contract.  Often times delivery due dates are identified in the Statement of Work or the Specification; however, it is also possible that the U.S. Forest Service may opt to allow interested offerors to propose delivery dates in their proposal or to negotiate with the successful offeror after award. 

3. What was the product of Rand’s earlier contract to study the air tanker issue? Was their product satisfactory? If not, why not?

The product of the earlier contract included an evaluation and an analysis of the U.S. Forest Service aviation program to determine the optimum mix of helicopter and airtanker assets; a forecast of the agency’s future needs for these aviation assets; and a cost/benefit analysis of the helicopter and airtanker options.  The product was satisfactory; however the final analysis requires refinement due to inadequacies in input data. 

4. Why is another contract being awarded for this issue, right after Rand’s other contract?

Additional research is needed to assist the U.S. Forest Service in determining the appropriate composition of a mix of fixed-wing airtanker and helicopter/water scooper aviation assets that optimizes the public’s return on investments in wildfire suppression.

5, What was the amount of money paid to Rand for the earlier contract?

$840,092.00

6. When will the USFS make a decision about the long term management of the large air tanker fleet? It was promised by the end of the summer, 2011.

The U.S. Forest Service is committed to modernizing the Large Airtanker fleet.  The agency is currently developing a strategy to modernize the Large Airtanker fleet in coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Office of Management and Budget and plans to submit it to Congress as soon as it is completed.

 

Smokejumping in Russia

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 1 Comment on Smokejumping in Russia
Russian smokejumpers
A member of the Avialesookhrana, Russia's aerial firefighting organization, leaps toward Siberia's boreal forest from an An-2 biplane. "The idea of actually parachuting into fires was a Soviet invention," says American wildfire historian Stephen Pyne. "In the 1930s these guys would climb out onto the wing of a plane, jump off, land in the nearest village, and rally the villagers to go fight the fire." Photo: Mark Thiessen/National Geographic

National Geographic has a great article about fighting wildland fires in Russia, specifically, smokejumping in Russia, where they have 4,000 jumpers working out of 340 bases across the country. According to the article written by Glenn Hodges, who with a photographer spent over three weeks observing and camping with the firefighters, it is a whole different world compared to fighting fire in the United States or Canada.

Here are some excerpts from the article, which is a must read:

It’s a shoestring operation—just $32 million a year to cover 11 time zones, less than the United States might spend in a few days of a heavy wildfire season. But with their mismatched uniforms and 50-year-old biplanes, Russian smokejumpers do what their countrymen do so well: make do with less. Less money, less equipment, and yes, less caution—even with fire.

When we break camp the next day to return to Shushenskoye, I’m surprised to see that the campfire is left smoldering. It’s a hot July day, which would be bad enough without the helicopter’s rotor wash blowing everything all over the place, but the risk doesn’t even seem to register with Alex, central Siberia’s most powerful firefighting official. In the U.S., firefighters would douse a fire on an ice floe in the dead of winter, especially with journalists around. But here they play the odds the way they see them, and perfect safety is burdensome and unnecessary. Fire shelters and fireproof clothing? Too expensive, but that’s OK, because the odds of needing them are low. Seat belts? Impractical. Thousands of times you will buckle and unbuckle, and probably for nothing. Campfire? It’s not going anywhere.

and…

The smokejumpers are true woodsmen—hunting, fishing, and trapping sable in the off-season to make ends meet, as nimble with an ax and knife as they are with their hands. When they land at a fire and make camp, they don’t just make tent poles and shovel handles from saplings, they make tables, benches, shelves—you name it. I’m amazed to see one guy make a watertight mug out of birch bark.

It’s a good thing their outdoor skills are solid, because their equipment often isn’t. When we return from the fire line, Valeriy discovers that one of his brand-new experimental smokejumper boots has melted. The rubber sole is a mash of black goo. His boots lasted “an hour, at best” he says angrily, before launching into a torrent of complaint about poor Russian equipment. “This tent like from Second World War,” he says, pointing at the canvas tent that will welcome mosquitoes and rain into our lives for days to come. The tents have no mosquito netting, the chain saws are heavy and unwieldy, the backpacks have no waist straps, the pull-on boots are made of cheap synthetic leather (and feet must be wrapped in towels to make them fit), the clothing is neither fire retardant nor water resistant. And everything is heavy.

 

South Dakota: Two burnovers in one day

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 10 Comments on South Dakota: Two burnovers in one day

On a day when a reporter said the winds were so strong that he had trouble standing, there were many large fires in central and eastern South Dakota. Twice on October 5, engines were burned over, causing, thankfully, what sound like non-serious burns for the firefighters, but the total loss of the two engines.

Jim Strain, the Chief of Operations for the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire Suppression, provides the details:

==============================

“On Wednesday, October 5th, I was working on a 17,500 acre prairie fire in south central South Dakota when I received a report of an engine burn over involving a rural VFD engine and crew on another wildfire 30 miles north of my location. That VFD engine and crew were assisting the BIA on a 5000 acre wildfire. Reports are that a firefighter was trying to restart the pump on the back of the apparatus when the fire started to entrap him. He ran from the engine and suffered burns on the face , scalp and hands. He was later hospitalized that evening and released the next morning. The engine was a total loss.

The second burn over occurred that same afternoon on an 11,000 acre wildfire in eastern South Dakota just south of the North Dakota and South Dakota state line. The Type 6 engine crew on a rural VFD engine was attempting to cut a barbed-wire fence to gain access to a fire area, when the fire circled back and entrapped them, causing them to run to their safety zone. The two firefighters suffered minor burns to their necks and faces, but the engine was a total loss. The engine boss on this engine has over 30 years of experience suppressing wildfires.

We are still trying to gather facts on both situations, but it seems rather apparent that the abundant spring and summer rainfall throughout Eastern Montana and the Dakotas has contributed to above average grass fuel loadings in the area. Coupling that with the normal seasonal fall dryness and warm, windy conditions, create a situation where above normal radiant heat transfer and extreme rates of spread are seen in these grass fuels models. What is deceiving is that in all of our fires this week, fire spread will slow in the green draw bottoms ( or coulees for those of you that speak Eastern Montanan ) and move quickly upslope in the dryer cured fuel beds on the ridge tops. None of this comes as a surprise, but it can happen so fast that firefighters think they are safe one moment and trapped the next. As we move into October, we can expect more of the same on days where the fire danger is high, very high or extreme in our grass fuel models.

We are very grateful that just minor injuries occurred to the firefighters, but it could have been worse. But this serves a reminder to maintain that situational awareness on any grass fire, especially under the conditions that we seeing this fall fire season.”

=============================

UPDATE October 13, 2011: there was a third burnover that day.

Very old and very new air tankers

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,
Tanker 40 dropping in Newton Co TX
Tanker 40 dropping in Newton County Texas, posted October 3, 2011 on the official Facebook page of the Office of the Governor of Texas (click to enlarge)

Two very different air tankers are in the news, a very old one and the newest air tanker to join the federal fleet. Above is a photo, posted October 3, 2011 on the “Office of the Governor of Texas” Facebook page, of Neptune’s Tanker 40, a jet-powered BAe-146, making one of its first drops on an actual fire. The aircraft is not new, having entered service in 1986, but it was just recently converted into an air tanker. It least it is newer than the other air tankers currently flying that are 40 to 60 years old. The first P2s were manufactured in 1945 and the military retired their last one in 1984.

The photo below of a TBM dropping on a fire in 1972 is included here because a TBM is also in the news. The nonprofit Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula has purchased one of the last TBM air tankers still flying and will be displaying it in their hanger at the Missoula International Airport. It is scheduled to arrive at Missoula today, October 10. [UPDATE: the TBM arrived in Missoula at noon on October 10. Photos and more information are at the Missoulian site.]

TBM air tanker dropping Vista fire
TBM air tanker dropping on the Vista fire, San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California, 1972. Photo by Bill Gabbert, Wildfire Today

Here is an excerpt from an October 8 article in the Missoulian about the TBM:

Dick Komberec can’t wait for Monday.

Barring weather or mechanical complications, that’s when a long-ago thoroughbred from the Johnson Flying Service slurry bomber fleet returns home to Missoula.

It’s a retrofitted World War II torpedo bomber – “TBM,” to guys like Komberec who flew them as sprayers and fire bombers for Bob Johnson from 1954 to 1973.

The airplane is flying, with a seasoned Canadian pilot at the helm, from New Brunswick, where it and dozens of its brethren served as sprayers and fire retardant planes at Forest Protection Limited for most of the past 40 years. But when it touches ground at the Missoula International Airport, it’ll be Missoula’s again.

The nonprofit Museum of Mountain Flying used a generous gift to buy the plane for an undisclosed but rock-bottom price. It’ll take its place inside the hangar among nine other pioneering mountain planes, including the centerpiece DC-3 that dropped smokejumpers to their deaths in the tragic Mann Gulch fire in 1949. That plane flew back to Missoula in October 2001.

“It’s an historic event for Missoula and the whole state of Montana, really,” said Stan Cohen, the museum board’s president. “It’s not as historic as the Mann Gulch airplane, but it’ll be the only Johnson TBM on display in the U.S.”

Plans are to house “Alpha 13” in the museum hangar, restore its Johnson Flying Service orange and white colors and, perhaps, take it for a spin now and then or do some demonstration water drops.

Other articles on Wildfire Today about Tanker 40 and the BAe-146.

Thanks go out to Bill M. and Dick

Wildland firefighter memorial dedicated in California

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,
Dedication of the California Wildland Firefighter Memorial
Dedication of the California Wildland Firefighter Memorial. Photo: Southwest Riverside News Network

After two decades of planning and overcoming funding shortfalls, the California Wildland Firefighter Memorial was dedicated on Saturday west of Elsinore, California off the Ortega Highway about two miles from the location of the 1959 Decker fire which killed six firefighters. It is a few hundred yards east of the U. S. Forest Service El Cariso engine station, which is across the highway from the former location of the El Cariso Hot Shot camp. I worked at both places in the 1970s.

More than 300 firefighters and family members paid tribute at the memorial which will display about 200 plaques in remembrance of the 400 people who died fighting wildland fires in California.

Here is an excerpt from an article at SWNN.com:

After more than 50 years, Carlo Guthrie still cries over her husband’s death—and on Saturday, her tears were bittersweet. Carlo, the wife of fallen California Division of Forestry fire truck driver John Guthrie, was among the more than 300 who gathered for the dedication of the California Wildland Firefighter Memorial off the Ortega Highway.

“The tears will never stop. I bet you everything when there’s a wildland fire, there’s widows out there watching that fire, I always am,” she said. “And now there’s a place where John and all California firefighters who gave the ultimate sacrifice can be honored.”

The memorial site sits off the Ortega in the hills above Lake Elsinore, and near the grounds where crews battled the deadly 1959 Decker blaze, which claimed the life of John and five other firefighters.

It serves as a spot where families, comrades and survivors can reflect. The memorial consists of a red brick Maltese cross, guarded by a rock wall with fire plaques embossed with the names of fatal fires, the county, year and the number of fire personnel lost in the blaze. The ground in front of the monument is covered in red bricks engraved with the names of fallen firefighters.

Photos and more details about the dedication ceremony.

Web site for the California Wildland Firefighter Memorial