Air Tanker 41, a BAe-146, drops retardant. BLM photo.
An environmental group filed a lawsuit in a Montana federal court Tuesday alleging that the US Forest Service has polluted waterways by inadvertently dropping fire retardant in or near waterways. The retardant was dropped by aircraft under contract with the Forest Service while assisting wildland firefighters on the ground.
The suit says government data released earlier this year showed more than 760,000 gallons of fire retardant was dropped into waterways between 2012 and 2019. The lawsuit alleges the continued use of retardant from aircraft violates the Clean Water Act and requests a judge to declare the pollution illegal.
Example of retardant avoidance areas (red) in Northern California along Hwy. 96 near Klamath River.
The Forest Service has established retardant avoidance areas along waterways where the liquid is not supposed to be applied. This puts buffer zones around waterways and habitat for some threatened, endangered, and sensitive species in order to avoid applying retardant in those areas. When they were first established in 2011 it resulted in approximately 30 percent of USFS lands being off limits for retardant while fighting fire. There is an exception if human life or public safety is threatened. The policy was the result of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that studied the use of retardant and how it affects water resources and certain plant and wildlife species. The EIS was written in response to a July, 2010 decision by U. S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in a lawsuit filed in 2008 by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
The same organization, FSEEE, filed the new case yesterday. An attorney in Missoula, MT who specializes in environmental law, Tim Bechtold, will be representing FSEEE. Presiding over the case will be District Court Judge Dana Christensen. He joined the court in 2011 after a nomination from President Barack Obama. Before, he was a partner in the firm of Christensen, Moore, Cockrell, Cummings, and Axelberg, in Kalispell, Montana. One of the 15 practice areas the firm deals with today is environment and natural resources.
In 2012 FSEEE issued a statement criticizing the use of air tankers on fires, claiming it is “immoral”. The group argued that aerial firefighting is too dangerous and ineffective and that “retardant doesn’t save homes; proper construction and landscaping save homes.”
Firefighters on the North Complex, Plumas NF, Sept. 9, 2020. USFS photo by Kari Greer.
Today President Biden made remarks at the Summit on Fire Prevention and Control addressing the nation’s fire service leaders, commemorating Fire Prevention Week, honoring the bravery and heroism of our nation’s Firefighters, and discussing efforts to protect our communities and ensure Firefighter health and safety amidst the ongoing climate crisis. The summit happened during Fire Prevention Week, which began on Sunday. It is the 100th year of the week’s observance.
You can read the full text of his speech and see the video. Below are excerpts.
…And when the impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, we’re calling on you more and more and more.
Extreme heat and prolonged drought have turned wildfire season into wildfire years. And local firefighters are being called in more to respond to the fires in the wildland urban interface where we’re moving out into the forest areas to develop and it becomes local and federal.
So I want you to know that my administration is doing everything we can to make sure you have the resources you need to do your job as safely and effectively and efficiently as possible.
You know, we invested $350 billion in the American Rescue Plan to help states and local — states and cities keep first responders on the job, including firefighters on the job when — during COVID-19.
And between the American Rescue Plan and my 2023 budget request, we’ve increased federal firefighting grants by $320 million, which includes money to fund 1,200 more local firefighters in the field, hundreds more emergency response vehicles, and thousands — thousands of sets of turnout gear. A pioneer in research on issues from — including like cancer prevention.
You know, it’s close to my heart. Cancer is a leading killer of firefighters. Toxic substances you’ve been exposed to as part of your job are almost certainly — certainly connected to those cancer diagnoses. And we’re doing — we’re going to do something about it.
We created a special claims unit at the Department of Labor to ensure that they’re processing federal firefighters’ cancer claims quickly.
And I’m urging Congress to send to my desk the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act — let me say it again: the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act — which are going to help federal firefighters and their families assess critical worker compensation resources, including making sure that several forms of cancer are presumed to be caused — presumed to be caused by the firefighter’s job. [Note from Bill: the legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House, but it is bogged down in the Senate.]
And I’m also — I’m also proud that last November, I signed into law Protecting America’s First Responders Act, which extends the benefits under the Public Safety Officers’ Death Benefits Program to the families of firefighters killed in training and made it easier to qualify for permanent disability.
The final point — I’m sorry to go on so long, but I feel passionately about this. The final point I’d like to make today is that we’re doing everything we can to ease the burden on our firefighters by preventing fires. This is the 100th — hard to believe — it’s the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week. And the landmark legislation I’ve signed into law includes historic investments to reduce the risk of fire.
The Bipar- — the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes significant forest management, increases community resilience and — to wildfires, and harnesses new technologies to keep communities safe. It’s also repairing vital infrastructure and — firefighters and other first responders rely on to quickly get to the — to those — those in need.
You know, the Inflation Reduction Act enables us to take unprecedented steps to confront climate crisis, which is going to protect forest health, reduce fire risk, and supercharge our clean energy future.
We’re also maximizing protections for people when fires do break out, through a national initiative to help states, local, and Tribal and territorial governments adapt and adopt the most up-to-date building codes that reflect the threats from the climate — from climate change.
Look, on behalf of my own family and every American, I just want to close by saying again: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Fires will always be a fact of human life. And when the worst happens, when those alarms go off, when everything and everybody you love is in danger, there’s no better sight in the world than that firefighter who’s ready to go to work.
So, thank you for being who you are. Thank you for all the heroes you represent. You are — you are on the alert and on call in communities all across this country right now as I speak.
So God bless you all. And may God protect our firefighters. Thank you for letting me have a chance to talk to you. I wish our — I literally do wish I were there with you. Thank you. And thank you, Lori.
Wildland firefighters in Spain demonstrate for workers rights. Image from Reuters video.
On Saturday about 2,000 wildland firefighters demonstrated in Madrid for improved workers’ rights. In Spain most of them are employed by regional agencies and work for four months during the summer fire season.
They are asking for more training, that the government recognize the category of wildland firefighter, and that they take into account the risk inherent in the job.
Wildland firefighters in Spain demonstrate for workers rights. Image from Reuters video.
“We are risking our lives for a four-month-a-year contract and earning just over 1,200 euro,” said Jesús, who said he was one of five firefighters entrapped in a fire in Almorós, in Toledo.
“I am 57 years old and I don’t know how long they are going to keep me in a forest fire or carrying a chainsaw,” said María José.
Wildland firefighters in Spain demonstrate for workers rights. Image from Reuters video.
Reuters has video of the demonstration which appears to show hundreds of firefighters demonstrating in the street. Many of them are wearing their uniforms and in one scene a group with flappers beat them on the ground rhythmically.
Wildland firefighters in Spain demonstrate for workers rights. Image from Reuters video.
In the United States federal wildland firefighters have many of the same issues as their colleagues in Spain. But they have not yet taken to the streets.
Nine countries in Europe set records in 2022 for the total burned area since the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) began collecting wildfire data in 2006. They were Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. The difference this year compared to the 15-year average was extreme in Spain, Romania, and France.
Spain’s new record is by far the most notable with 299,635 hectares burned this year compared to an average of 66,965.
Wildfire on Easter Island damages iconic statues. Municipalidad de Rapu Nui photo.
Approximately 80 of the famous stone figures on Easter Island were damaged by a wildfire on October 5 local authorities say. The statues, known as moai which range in size from 6 to more than 30 feet tall, were affected by the fire that burned about 148 acres of the Rapa Nui National Park on the island which is part of Chile. There are an estimated 416 moia in that area of the island.
Wildfire on Easter Island damages iconic statues. Municipalidad de Rapu Nui photo.
Moai are made of lapilli tuff, pyroclastic rock prone to fractures if exposed to high temperatures. A Polynesian society that had settled in the area around the year 300 built the shrines between the 10th and 16th centuries on what experts say is the most remote inhabited island on Earth.
Wildfire on Easter Island. Photo by Primera Compania de Bomberos de Isla de Pascua.
Ariki Tepano, with the indigenous Ma’u Henua community that manages the park, said the fire had done “irreparable” damage to the site.
“The moai are totally charred, and you can see the effect of the fire upon them,” he said in a statement.
Wildfire on Easter Island damages iconic statues. Municipalidad de Rapu Nui photo.
A shortage of volunteers made it difficult to contain the fire, according to the post by Rapa Nui.
Pedro Edmunds, mayor of Easter Island, attributed the origin of the flames to the burning of pastures “that some horse and cow farmers do on the island.” The Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, announced on Friday that the cause of the fire will be investigated and that Chile’s National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) will have a permanent forestry brigade on Easter Island throughout the year.
Ninoska Huki, provincial head of Conaf on Easter Island, explained to Chile’s La Tercera news outlet that the corporation “hires brigades during forest fire seasons, and that begins in the second half of October until April,” so the brigade was not active. Chile, moreover, is one of the few countries in the world where firefighters work on a voluntary basis. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to get new young people to join the corps. From July 1, 2020, to April 21 of this year, 60 forest or vegetation fires occurred on the island, 13% less than in the same period of the previous year.
During his visit to Santiago, shortly after the island reopened to tourism after almost two and a half years of closure due to the pandemic, the mayor met with Chilean President Gabriel Boric and some of his ministers to request a budget readjustment for Easter Island. As Rapa Nui generates most of its income via tourism, the isolation left the community “bankrupt,” according to the municipality. Of the 800 park rangers hired to prevent fires, clean up and prevent tourists from damaging the statues in the 16,000-hectare park, there are now only 120. The island now receives only three flights weekly, for a total of 750 passengers, compared to the 14 flights of 8,000 total passengers that arrived before the lockdown. “Who is going to come to help put out fires if you don’t pay them? It’s that simple,” said the mayor, who was not granted the requested budget readjustment.
Wildfire on Easter Island damages iconic statues. Municipalidad de Rapu Nui photo.
Howard Fire photo, looking west at 10:20 a.m. Oct. 9, 2022. FIRIS.
Aircraft were over the Howard Fire Sunday morning, including a lead plane and water-dropping helicopters.
The FIRIS OES 24 aircraft created an updated map at about 10 a.m. showing that the fire had grown to 85 acres, an increase of 10 acres since it was mapped Saturday evening.
The incident is 8 miles northeast of Ojai, California. It is burning on both sides of Sespe Creek and the 20W13 Road, 6 miles east of Highway 33.
FIRIS was able to see fire retardant around much of the fire as well as hand-constructed and dozer-constructed fire line on portions of the perimeter. The video below is from FIRIS.
7:15 p.m. PDT October 8, 2022
Howard Fire 3-D map (in red) 5:21 p.m. Oct. 8, 2022
The Howard Fire started Saturday afternoon in a remote area 8 miles northeast of Ojai, California. It is burning on both sides of Sespe Creek and the 20W13 Road 6 miles east of Highway 33.
At about 5:50 the incident commander estimated it had burned 80 to 85 acres. About half an hour earlier it was mapped by the FIRIS aircraft at 75 acres.
Howard Fire, looking southeast from Tecuyamtn1 camera at 4:32 p.m. Oct. 8, 2022. AlertWildfire.
For the first hour or so it was growing quickly putting up a convection column of smoke. Firefighters said it had the potential for 1,000 acres, but after aggressive initial attack by hand crews and aircraft in the difficult terrain, little smoke was seen as the sun was setting. Air tankers were able to complete a retardant line around 80 percent of the blaze by flight cutoff time. Orders were placed for aircraft to be available on the fire Sunday morning.
Several hikers were rescued by fire department helicopters.
At least nine Erickson Air-Cranes photographed together for the first time. October, 2021 in Greece. Photo by Dimitris Klagos. (According to a report from Erickson, there may have been 10 Air-Cranes at the site.)
Climate change, increasing wildfires, and Russia’s war in Ukraine are combining to put unusual stresses on governments, especially in Europe. When wildfires become numerous or very large, threatening large numbers of residents, many countries will mobilize military units. They may use helicopters to drop water or transport firefighters or trucks to assist with logistics. The United States has eight Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS) that can be quickly loaded into military C-130s to drop retardant on fires. Soldiers on the ground can be transformed from warfighters to firefighters.
This year was the hottest summer on record in Europe. It followed what what is now the second hottest summer on the continent. During the worst drought in centuries wildfires burned about 50 percent more acres than the previous record set in 2017.
The Washington Post has an article about how the war is affecting countries in Europe, in this case Slovenia, that need to both fight wildfires as the climate changes and bolster the military as international tensions mount.
“There will be these disasters of fires or floods. It will be more and more common,” Defense Minister Marjan Šarec said in an interview. “We must spend our money for everything that is needed. Because safety has no price.”
“It’s not a dilemma of cannons or butter,” said Šarec, who has also been a volunteer firefighter. “As a serious country we must do both.”
But military leaders say the dual-headed challenge can sometimes be significant, and even contradictory.
“Our training is going on in a military way. Exercises. How to use military equipment, how to fight, how to protect. How to defend,” said Glavaš, the head of Slovenia’s military command. “When you stop this training and you go to civilian tasks you need to focus your mind from fighting to something else. It’s very hard sometimes.”
He said that fighting fires “definitely” had an impact on combat readiness.
Currently the European Union coordinates and funds the deployment of 12 fixed wing firefighting airplanes and one helicopter pooled by EU countries. Fire Aviation reported in July that the EU plans to purchase additional air tankers.
The European Commission issued a press release on Oct. 5, 2022 confirming they are proposing to spend €170 million from the EU budget to reinforce its rescEU ground and aerial assets in the summer of 2023. The rescEU transitional fleet would then have a total of 22 planes, 4 helicopters as well as more pre-positioned ground teams. Beginning in 2025, the fleet would be further reinforced through an accelerated procurement of airplanes and helicopters.
The Washington Post reported that Slovenian defense leaders decided this month to cancel a $343 million purchase of armored troop carriers asthey contemplate buying more aircraft that could be used to fight fires.
Gérald Moussa Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, said recently, “We want to increase the number of Canadair [water scooping air tankers] in our own fleet from twelve to sixteen. But the problem is not to buy them, it is to produce them. Today there are no longer any factories that do so.”
The CL-415 water scooping air tanker has been out of production for years, but De Havilland, which now owns the rights to the aircraft, announced on September 21 the planned construction of a huge aircraft manufacturing facility east of Calgary, Alberta. They expect to employ 1,500 workers to produce at least three lines of aircraft — DHC-515 (a modernized variant of the CL-415), DHC-6 Twin Otter, and Dash 8-400 (Q400).
An announcement from De Havilland said, “European customers have signed letters of intent to purchase the first 22 aircraft pending the positive outcome of government-to-government negotiations through the Government of Canada’s contracting agency, the Canadian Commercial Corporation. De Havilland Canada expects first deliveries of the DHC-515 [water scooping air tanker] by the middle of the decade, with deliveries of additional aircraft to begin at the end of the decade, providing other customers the opportunity to renew existing fleets or proceed with new acquisition opportunities at that time.”
In the near term it does not seem likely that European countries are going to be able to find and purchase dozens of purpose-built air tankers to meet their needs.
Before this year many of the firefighting aircraft typically used in Western Europe and the Middle East during the summer were contracted from Russia. With the war and sanctions that source has virtually dried up.
The Helicopter Investor reported that in April the Portuguese government expelled a team of Russian mechanics working on three of their Russian made Kamov helicopters, and shut down the hangar in Ponte de Sor where the maintenance crew was working. In 2006 the government spent €348 million to buy six Kamov Ka-32A helicopters which could transport personnel and drop water, but over the last 10 years have had difficulty keeping them airworthy. In January none of the six were operational.
The Portuguese Air Force has signed an agreement to purchase six Blackhawk helicopters outfitted for fighting wildfires. The aircraft will be supplied by Arista Aviation Services, a US-based firm which specializes in modernizing surplus US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Delivery of the first two is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.
For a number of years Erickson Inc. has contracted their firefighting Air-Crane helicopters to European governments. In 2021 Columbia Helicopters had Columbia Model 234 Chinook’s on contract in Turkey. Single engine air tankers regularly make the migration between South America and Europe as the fire season switches hemispheres.
