Military C-130s assist with Texas fires

The Texas Forest Service has this update on their fire situation. (The complete report is here.)

A Type I IMT (Wilder) has been ordered for the PK West Fire and a Type II IMT (Florida Red) has been ordered to support East Texas. A tanker base has been set up in Midland to support a DC-10 airtanker. Dyess Air Force Base has set up a tanker base to support the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) units on four USAF C-130s.

The 100 acre Pinnacle Fire, now 90 percent contained destroyed 6 homes, caused numerous evacuations, and threatened 100 homes & 10 businesses. Two MAFFS units from Del Rio dropped retardant on the fire that assisted in the saving of those structures. TFS ground crews continue to work this fire. A FEMA Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) was received.

The 145th Airlift Wing, Charlotte, NC and the 153rd Air Wing, Cheyenne, WY are providing one Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) C-130 aircraft each, along with two from the 146th Air Wing, Channel Islands, CA, and support personnel to the state of Texas. The aircraft and personnel are based at Dyess Air Force Base. On Saturday, April 16, two MAFFS from Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs, Colorado were mobilized to assist Mexico with two very large fires 40 to 60 miles south of the Texas border.

Also on April 16, Texas Governor Rick Perry requested the assistance from the federal government to help fight the fires in his state.

Here are three videos of the MAFFS C-130 air tankers dropping on fires in Texas on April 17, 2011.

 

The video below has some coarse language at the end.

The top 12 fires in Texas listed on the National Situation Report:

Top 12 Texas fires, April 19, 2011

MAFFS C-130 Texas 4-2011
CNN

Below are the tracks that N144Z, the Cessna Citation infrared mapping aircraft owned by the US Forest Service, left on FlightAware Monday night and very early Tuesday morning as it mapped fires in the Midland, Abilene, and Fort Worth areas. Each group of parallel lines indicate one fire that was mapped, or multiple fires if they are close together. The imagery is then analyzed by Infrared Imagery Interpreters who map the perimeters of the fires, the heat concentrations, and any spot fires outside the main perimeter, and then they calculate accurate acreages. This may be why the size of the fire at Possum Kingdom Lake 70 miles west of Fort Worth was adjusted overnight from an estimate of 63,000 to nearly 150,000 acres.

N144Z KABI to KMAF 4-18-2011

 

N144Z 4-19-2011

More air tankers mobilized to Texas fires

The Texas Forest Service announced on Monday that four military C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) are being mobilized to help fight the fires in Texas, after Governor Rick Perry asked the federal government for assistance. In addition, a privately owned DC-10 air tanker has been dispatched to Texas. The C-130s can carry up to 3,000 gallons, while the DC-10 has a maximum capacity of 11,000 gallons.

An air tanker base has been set up in Midland to support the DC-10 air tanker. Dyess Air Force Base has set up a tanker base to support the four MAFFS aircraft. This is the first time Texas has mobilized these aerial resources.

A second Type 1 Incident Management Team (Wilder) has been ordered for a fire in Texas, for the PK West Fire, and a Type 2 Incident Management Team has been ordered to support East Texas.

Suffering their worst drought in decades,the state has dozens of active fires. Here is a list of the top ten, ranked by acres burned, as of Monday morning.

Top 10 Texas fires, April 18, 2011

The Texas firefighter killed on Friday may have been struck by a vehicle

The firefighter from the Eastland Fire Department in Texas that was killed on Friday may have been struck by a vehicle, rather than being “overcome by smoke” as was reported by the local justice of the peace. Here is an excerpt from the Reporter news in Abilene, TX:

…According to Trooper Sparky Dean, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the preliminary autopsy results from the Tarrant County medical examiner reveal that Gregory Mack Simmons, 50, died after he “suffered blunt force trauma consistent with being struck by a vehicle.”

Dean said the vehicle Simmons was traveling in was attempting to exit a pasture where Simmons and others were fighting a wildfire, but the gate to the field was blocked by other fire apparatus. Simmons reportedly exited his vehicle and went toward County Road 323. Dean said it was possible that Simmons ran onto or near the roadway, which was obscured by heavy smoke, and was struck by an unknown vehicle.

The death is being investigated as a pedestrian crash by the Texas Highway Patrol.

A funeral service for Simmons will be held Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the Leon River Cowboy Church in Eastland. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Eastland ISD Scholarship Fund (P.O. Box 31, Eastland, TX 76448) or the Eastland Volunteer Fire Department (414 S. Seaman, Eastland, TX 76448)

 

Incident Response Pocket Guide app for iPhone

A private company has written an iPhone app for the Incident Response Pocket Guide. Wildfire Today received this email:

ForceReadiness.com has created an Incident Response Pocket Guide iPhone application and will offer it for free. Android support will come later this year. We’d certainly appreciate your feedback, or better yet, your help in getting the word out. No gimmick here. We’re committed to providing a certain amount of free apps to the people we serve and we thought iRPG would be a great one for wildland firefighters.

The direct link to the iRPG app in the iTunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/incident-response-pocket-guide/id430155496?mt=8

Our website: http://www.ForceReadiness.com

David Caraway, Founder & CEO, ForceReadiness.com

We tend to lean toward the Android operating system, so if you try this iPhone app, let us know what you think.

The IRPG is also available as a .pdf document.

UPDATE July 14, 2011:

A different company has made an IRPG app for Android, priced at $1.87.

U. S. military sends two air tankers to fight fires in Mexico

Saturday morning two C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) left Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs, Colorado for Mexico to assist with two large fires that are burning about 60 miles south of the Texas border. They arrived later in the day at Laughlin Air Force Base, which they will use as a reload base, and are already dropping water mixed with foam concentrate on the fires. That’s right, not long-term fire retardant, but foam.

The MAFFS units, which hold about 3,000 gallons, are owned by the U.S. Forest Service and slip into the C-130’s cargo bay fairly quickly to convert the transport planes into air tankers. Normally they drop retardant but apparently they were not able to work out the logistics of acquiring it for this mission.

The MAFFS aircraft have been authorized to drop four loads per day per aircraft, for up to seven days.

Evergreen’s 747 Supertanker has been working on the fires in Mexico since April 12. Steven Daniels, of Evergreen Aviation, told Wildfire Today that the massive air tanker has dropped 12 loads of retardant, 20,000 gallons each, for a total of 240,000 gallons.

Supertanker1 - 30 June 2010
File photo of the 747 Supertanker dropping on June 30, 2010

The Bomberos, or Mexican firefighters, are not totally familiar with the use of retardant and wonder why the 747 is not dropping directly on the fire or flames, but instead is dropping just ahead of the fire. They are learning that dropping ahead of the fire is the best way to slow it down, and that an air tanker can’t put out a fire completely, it takes support from ground personnel to follow-up after the drop.

Two Air-Cranes operated by Helicopter Transport Services have also been working on the fires in Mexico.

Firefighter killed in Texas

From KTXS:

EASTLAND, Texas — A 21-year veteran volunteer firefighter gave his life Friday trying to halt flames that were racing toward the community of Gorman.

Greg Simmons
Greg Simmons

Gregory M. Simmons, 51, was a volunteer with the Eastland Fire Department for the past 11 years after serving for 10 years in the Sachse Fire Department before moving to Eastland. He and his wife, Carrie, managed an Eastland business and have two daughters, Kateland and Karley.

“To say we are shocked and saddened by this tragedy is a huge understatement,” said Eastland Mayor Mark Pipkin. “This loss makes us even more appreciative of the dedication of our many firemen and other emergency personnel. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Carrie and the rest of Greg’s family.”

Simmons gave his life battling one of five fires that flared in Eastland County on Friday. The fire he fought started shortly before noon near the small community of Kokomo. The fire grew rapidly and was pushed southeast by strong northwest winds toward the city of Gorman.

Gorman was ordered evacuated at 1 p.m., and by 5:30 p.m., the order was rescinded when it was clear the town was saved.

Simmons was pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m. by Justice of the Peace James King.

Eastland Fire Chief Phillip Arther said, “Greg was a seasoned veteran and invaluable member of the department and community, and we are all at a loss for words at this time.”

Firefighterclosecalls.com is reporting that as many as eight firefighters were trapped on the incident that resulted in the death of Mr. Simmons, but we have not seen any other similar reports of a multiple firefighter entrapment.

Our thoughts are with Mr. Simmons’ family and co-workers.

UPDATE at 2:00 p.m. MT, April 16, 2010

MyFOXDFW reported Friday night:

Eastland Fire spokesman Ron Holiday confirmed one volunteer firefighter, 51-year-old Greg Simmons, was killed while fighting a fire in the south part of Eastland County. Five other volunteer firefighters were hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries.

TFS spokeswoman Holly Huffman said (another) state forest service firefighter suffered minor injuries while battling a blaze (in Stephens County). He was trying to clear away dried vegetation with a bulldozer when he clipped a gas line. He suffered light burns and bruising as he jumped from the exploding bulldozer.