Wildfire Today

Conair to replace their legacy air tankers with Q400s

Bill GabbertJanuary 15, 2021January 16, 2021Uncategorized1 Comment

The company has purchased eleven Q-400s

Conair Q400AT air tanker — Conair Q400AT – Photo Credit Jeff Bough.

The Conair Group plans to retire all of their legacy L-188 and CV-580 air tankers and over the next two to three years replace them with De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Q400s.

In a statement, the company gave their rationale for making the change:

“Planes used to fight wildfires as airtankers are often older models and are flown into demanding environments, inevitably resulting in metal fatigue over time. In addition, aircraft designed to obsolete standards leads to increased risk of incidents, costly repairs, limited replacement parts, and ultimately time grounded from fighting fires. Conair’s strategic move towards a long-term vision includes replacing the company’s fleet of heavy legacy airtankers with the new Q400ATs.

“We evaluated 29 aircraft before selecting the Q400 for modification into an aerial firefighting tool. The unanimous opinion of our flight operations experts was that the Q400 exceeds all the Next Generation performance criteria within a maneuverable and stable platform.” says Jeff Berry, Director of Business Development at Conair. “The Q400AT is fast, fuel efficient, and tactically flexible, operating both initial attack as well as sustained support actions. The Q400 is still in production and has strong Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) support from De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited (De Havilland Canada), guaranteeing availability of parts and servicing for years.”

The eleven Q400s, formerly owned by Flybe and now in Europe, will be delivered to Conair beginning this month.

In 2017 the Conair Group secured a deal to sell six Q400 Multi-Role aircraft converted to air tankers to France’s Securite Civile (Department of Civil Defence and Emergency Preparedness). These were new aircraft that Conair purchased from Bombardier which can be reconfigured in a few hours to carry passengers, hence the Multi-Role (MR) designation. The new aircraft are replacing France’s old S-2 air tankers.

One of Conair’s Q400s, a Q400AT not configured to carry passengers, was on contract in Queensland, Australia during the 2020/2021 summer bushfire season through December. This was the first time the state has had regular access to a large air tanker, rather than borrowing from New South Wales or Victoria. Tanker 141/Bomber 141 (C-FFQE) arrived in Bundaberg in August after departing from Abbotsford British Columbia and making fuel stops at Oakland, Honolulu, Majuro (Marshall Islands), Honiara (Solomon Islands), and Brisbane where it cleared customs.

Air Tanker 141, C-FFQEQ, Q400 — T-141 (C-FFQEQ) Q400AT – Refueling at Majuro, Marshall Islands in August , 2020 while en route to Bundaberg, Queensland for the 2020-2021 bushfire season in Australia. Photo Credit Brendon Sutton.

In September, 2020, Jeff Berry, Manager of Business Development at Conair, said, “[The Q400AT] is a pure air tanker STC [supplemental type certificate], so we don’t have any of the residual plumbing, wiring, attachment points inside, or heavy duty flooring that you need for an MR, so it’s stripped down to be a pure tanker. And it gives us the maximum fuel load and the maximum retardant tank capacity. You get the full 10,000 liters [2,642 gallons]. The Q400AT is truly a ‘Green’ airtanker — it is incredibly fuel efficient burning only 58 percent of the fuel per hour while carrying 85 percent of the load of a typical type 1 airtanker.”

According to Wikipedia the Q400’s maximum cruise speed is 345 to 414 mph. It seems likely that the bolted-on external retardant tank would have a negative effect on the air speed and range. Out of the factory it is rated to haul up to 90 passengers.

conair tanker 42 — File photo of Conair Air Tanker 42, a Convair 580, taxiing for takeoff at Whitehorse International Airport at Yukon, Canada. The aircraft was built in 1958. Photo by D. Cote, Yukon Fire Management.

Conair has been fighting fires for 51 years. In addition to the CV-580, Q400, and L-188, their fleet currently is comprised of air attack and bird dog aircraft (Cessna Caravan C208B and Turbo Commander TC-690A), amphibious scooping air tankers (CL215T and Air Tractor AT802A), and land-based air tankers (Avro RJ85 and Air Tractor AT 802).

The manufacture date of the Convair 580 in the photo was corrected to show it was 1958, not 1981.

Washington state DNR requests funds for 100 additional firefighters

Bill GabbertJanuary 14, 2021March 23, 2022UncategorizedHilary Franz, legislation, Washington3 Comments

Wildfires in Washington, 2020 — Map showing locations of wildfires in Washington that were reported to the National Interagency Fire Center in 2020.

Legislation being introduced in the state of Washington requests additional funding to beef up their fire suppression capability on the ground and in the air.

The number of acres burned in wildfires last year in the state, 812,000, was more than four times the average in the 2000s. In eastern Washington, 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed by the Babb-Malden Fire in September, 2020. The number of acres blackened in Oregon last year, just across the border, was the second highest ever recorded.

Babb-Malden Fire in eastern Washington, September, 2020. Whitman County Sheriff photo.

The bill introduced earlier this week in Washington, HB 1168, would appropriate $125 million for the Department of Natural Resources to create for the first time a dedicated fund to suppress and mitigate wildfires over the next two-year budget period.

A similar bill was introduced last year but failed to pass, possibly because it also stipulated that a portion of the funds would be raised by establishing a surtax on home insurance premiums. This latest version leaves it up to the legislators to come up with a source for the money.

For two of the last three years, Washington had the worst air quality in the world due to smoke from wildfires.

The requested funds can be sorted into four categories:

Wildfire Response — $75.2 million

The bill would create positions for 100 more firefighters, adding three 20-person hand crews, 20 dozer operators, and two 10-person “post-release” crews comprised of formerly incarcerated persons who served on state fire response crews.

The bill would also allow the purchase of two intelligence gathering fixed wing aircraft to be used on fires. Their ten very old UH-1H Huey helicopters would receive upgrades of some systems and night-flying capabilities. Washington does not own any air tankers, but in 2020 they had approximately six privately owned single engine air tankers (SEATS) on contract.

Forest Restoration — $31.4 million

This would fully fund and accelerate the DNR’s 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan, which calls for restoring natural wildfire resistance to 1.25 million acres of forest.

Workforce Development — $5.9 million

Provide career pathways for foresters, firefighters and mill workers

Community Resilience — $12.6 million

Make investments at the home, neighborhood, and community levels to reduce wildfire risk and protect communities. Including investments in defensive strategies at the community level such as fuel breaks, prescribed fire, and creating defensible green space, plus direct assistance to home owners to secure their property and neighborhood with programs like FireWise.

In the video below Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and Rep. Larry Springer (D-Kirkland) joined experts and advocacy leaders from across the state to unveil the just-introduced bill. The discussion about fire begins at 6:00.

map fires Washington — Map showing heat detected by satellites on wildfires in Washington at 4:18 p.m. PDT September 8, 2020.

To see all articles on Wildfire Today tagged “Washington”, click here.

Stopping a fire with a blanket

Bill GabbertJanuary 12, 2021January 12, 2021Uncategorizedfire blanket, FireWise5 Comments

fire blanket vehicle fire — Screengrab from Bridgehill video.

You may have seen videos floating around recently of a fire resistant blanket being used to control a vehicle fire. It looks pretty simple — two people grab the corners of the blanket and pull it over the burning vehicle. Deprived of oxygen, the fire appears to be extinguished after just a few seconds. It makes sense, of course. No oxygen, no fire. But I assume if the blanket were quickly removed, there could be enough residual heat to reignite the fire as soon as oxygen was reintroduced.

The video below demonstrates how it works, using a product sold by Bridgehill, a company headquartered in Larvik, Norway.

Prices for the blanket, which they claim can be reused up to 50 times, start at $2,422 at Darley.

A California company takes advantage of the same principle, oxygen starvation, when using their version of a fire blanket to slow or stop the spread of a vegetation fire at a structure. Fire Break Solutions makes a 15-foot wide product that can be rolled out over grass or, the company claims, “low to medium brush.” It is made from interwoven strips of fire resistant fabric that are a couple of inches apart, leaving holes in between the strips. The side closest to the structure being protected has a solid skirt several feet wide. The intent is that the fire would burn into the area covered by the blanket and burn slowly underneath. By the time it gets to the solid fabric the fire would be much less intense and would slowly self extinguish.

The company advises that the edges should be weighted down with dirt or rocks. It comes in various lengths, with the 100-foot version priced at about $6,000.

Obviously, burning embers from a far-away fire could land directly on or adjacent to the house, so the home would need to be designed and built paying attention to the fire resistant characteristics of the roof, vents, siding, doors, windows, foundation, eaves, and decks. Fire Break says there should be no flammable material between the blanket and the house. If just outside of the fire blanket are tall grass, brush, or a continuous canopy of trees, no 15-foot wide fire blanket is going to save a structure.

The video below shows how it is deployed.

In the video below the Flame Brake covers half of a bed of fuel which looks like excelsior — fine curled wood shavings.

FireBreak also sells the Emberella fire blanket, which is a solid piece of fabric intended to cover a vehicle, hedges, or small structures. Their video shows it being tested.

Emberella fire blanket structure fire — Emberella fire blanket being tested, screenshot from the video. Fire Brake Solutions image.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Dave.

California Governor proposes hiring 16 additional firefighting crews

Bill GabbertJanuary 9, 2021January 18, 2021Uncategorizedbudget, California13 Comments

And, $1 billion for forest health and reduction of fire risk

Map smoke Apple Fire — Satellite photo by GOES-17 of smoke created by the Apple Fire in southern California at 7 a.m. PDT August 2, 2020. NASA.

The California Governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 asks for 16 additional firefighting hand crews. Governor Gavin Newsom also wants to establish 14 more California Conservation Corps (CCC) crews that are often assigned at incident command posts on fires to assist with Logistics and other support functions.

The budget document says, “The fire crews will enable CAL FIRE to respond to larger and more damaging wildfires throughout the fire season and complete priority fuel reduction projects to reduce wildfire risk in fire-threatened areas.”

One of the justifications for the additional personnel was the “existing population trends” in prisons that has reduced the number of inmates available for firefighting.

Forest Health

The Budget also includes $1 billion for a comprehensive package of resources to increase the pace and scale of forest health activities and decrease fire risk, including $581 million for CAL FIRE in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

New Helicopters

Funds to replace CAL FIRE’s 12 Vietnam War-era Huey helicopters with Sikorsky S70i Firehawks have already been received and allocated. Three new ships have been deployed so far, and it is estimated that four more will be put into operation sometime during the 2021 fire season (for a total of seven). CAL FIRE expects to put the remaining five helicopters into the fleet in 2022.

C-130H air tankers

The Budget includes $48.4 million to support the phasing in of seven large air tankers, C-130Hs. The 2019 and 2020 Budget Acts included funding for the aircraft that will be transferred from the federal government starting in 2021-22. The air tankers, currently owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, are being retrofitted by the U.S. Air Force utilizing $150 million in federal funding. CAL FIRE is continuing to prepare for the arrival of these aircraft by training and certifying new dedicated flight crews and mechanics, and cross‑training and certifying its existing pilots to fly the aircraft to assist firefighters. CAL FIRE is working with its federal partners to meet the expected 2021-22 arrival of the air tankers.

Research

The budget also includes $5 million to provide a research grant to California State University, San Marcos to study enhanced firefighting equipment and strategies to protect firefighters from conditions present during wildfires in the wildland urban interface.

What’s next

The Governor’s proposed budget will be considered by the legislature and will be subject to modifications before a final budget is passed.

The East is getting warmer and wetter — the West is warmer and drier

Bill GabbertJanuary 8, 2021January 8, 2021Uncategorizedclimate change, weather

Over the last 40 years

Temp-Precip changes — Combined shift in temperatures/precipitation for the 1991-2020 period compared to the 1981-2010 period. By Brian Brettschneider.

About 32 percent of the United States has gotten warmer and drier over the last 40 years, primarily in the West. The eastern two-thirds, about 66 percent, is warmer and wetter.

That leaves 2 percent of the country that is cooler and wetter — across the northern areas of Montana, North Dakota, Michigan, and Minnesota. A very tiny fraction, 0.06 percent in the northeastern tip of Minnesota, is cooler and drier. (Data from The Prism Climate Group and Brian Brettschneider)

And, it’s not only the U.S. that is getting warmer:

The fire season in California this year might be worse than in 2020:

The 10 Orders & 18 Watch Outs, illustrated

Bill GabbertJanuary 7, 2021Uncategorized10 Standard Firefighting Orders, 13/18 Situations, safety7 Comments

The 10 Standard Firefighting Orders and the 18 Watch Out Situations, as referenced in the Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461, provide wildland firefighters with a set of consistent best practices and a series of scenarios to be mindful of when responding to a wildland fire.

The 10 Standard Firefighting Orders are organized in a deliberate and sequential way to be implemented systematically and applied to all fire situations.

The 18 Watch Out Situations are more specific and cautionary, describing situations that expand the 10 Standard Firefighting Orders with the intent that if firefighters follow the Standard Firefighting Orders and are alerted to the 18 Watch Out Situations, much of the risk of firefighting can be reduced.

These photos and posters made available by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group could be useful. It’s unfortunate, though, that the text on the poster that contains all 10 and 18 is so small.

Downloads from NWCG:

Download the zip file (14 MB) with all 10 Standard Firefighting Orders individual images and the poster.
Download the zip file (14 MB) with all 10 Standard Firefighting Orders individual images and the poster (Spanish).
Download the zip file (16 MB) with all 18 Watch Out Situations individual images and the poster.
Download the zip file (15 MB) with all 18 Watch Out Situations individual images and the poster (Spanish).

(Note: the image at the top of the screen is low resolution. Download the zip files above for high resolution versions suitable for printing)