Tanker 911 dropping on the Poco Fire in Arizona, June 15, 2012. Photo by Ian James.
One of the DC-10 air tankers has dropped about 373,600 gallons of retardant during 33 sorties on seven wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico over the last 10 days. The fires were: Little Bear fire, 257 fire, Grand fire, Poco fire, Six Shooter fire, Fox fire, and 177 fire. They were all in Arizona except the Little Bear which was in New Mexico.
Eight of the nine air tankers currently on exclusive use contracts with the U.S. Forest Service are 50+ year old P2Vs designed for maritime patrol. Their average retardant load is 1,948 gallons according to a 2007-2009 air tanker study. If all of those 373,600 gallons the DC-10 dropped in those 10 days had been delivered by a P2V it would have taken about 192 round trips to the fires.
The U.S. Forest Service has a call when needed contract with one of the two DC-10 air tankers. Yesterday and today the pilots are on mandatory days off, making it unavailable. The USFS is not interested in awarding exclusive use contracts for the DC-10 or the 747 air tankers. The 747 can carry 20,000 gallons of retardant, more than 10 times more than a P2V, while the DC-10 almost always carries 11,600 gallons, more than five times the average load of a P2V.
We originally posted this video shot by KASA TV of the DC-10 dropping on June 14, but in case you missed it….
Members of the 153rd Airlift Wing, Cheyenne, Wyo., load a U.S. Forest Service Modular Airborne FireFighting System II onto a Wyoming Air National Guard C-130, June 24, 2012. Photo by Staff Sgt Natalie Stanley
UPDATED at 1:30 p.m. MT, June 23, 2012 to increase the number of MAFFS being activated from two to four.
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Four Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS) C-130 air tankers have been activated to assist in suppressing the numerous wildfires burning in the western United States. This is the first time the MAFFS air tankers have been used this year.
Two MAFFS will be provided by the 153rd Airlift Wing of the Wyoming Air National Guard at Cheyenne and another two will be from the 302nd Airlift Wing, Air Force Reserve, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. They will be based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado and are expected to be available to fly wildfire suppression missions by no later than Tuesday, June 26th.
Senior Master Sgt. Jack Goeken, loadmaster, 187th Airlift Squadron, Cheyenne, Wyo., prepares to load a U.S. Forest Service Modular Airborne Firefighting System II nozzle onto a Wyoming Air National Guard C-130, June 24, 2012. Photo by Staff Sgt Natalie Stanley
The interagency agreement between the USFS and the Department of Defense requires that MAFFS be operational within 48 hours. However they usually have responded within 36 hours of the initial request.
MAFFS II unit being transported on a carrier, ready for installation in a C-130J
Proposal to reactivate old MAFFS units
A California congressman has introduced legislation requiring that the eight old, first generation Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS), which can be used as needed in military C-130H aircraft to fight wildfires, be made available to units of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. The eight older MAFFS were replaced by nine second generation MAFFS II units within the last four years and the old units can’t be used in the more modern C-130J aircraft. The C-130Hs still in service are being targeted as potential air tankers by Representative Elton Gallegly from California who introduced the bill.
MAFFS air tankers are supposed to be activated only if all of the privately owned air tankers on federal contracts are committed. None of the eight military MAFFS have been used yet this year.
MAFFS C-130J makes a drop on the Las Conchas fire in New Mexico, 6-27-2011. Photo: Jayson Coil
Currently eight of the nine new MAFFS II units are assigned and available to be used in C-130Js at bases in California, Wyoming, Colorado, and North Carolina. Representative Gallegly’s bill, H.R.5965, would require that the one spare MAFFS II and the eight first generation MAFFS that are in storage be made available and ready for activation if needed for wildfire suppression. That would increase the numbers of MAFFS air tankers to 17.
There is at least one obstacle that would have to be overcome in order to implement the Representative’s proposal. The military has indicated that they are not interested in expanding their role in suppressing wildfires. According to the Conference Chairman’s Report from the Aerial Firefighting Conference held in Washington, D.C. in 2011, Lt. Col. Bryan Allen of the Air National Guard said that given the nation’s operational tempo, he would not be comfortable with extending this role for what are essentially warfighting assets. And Clark R. Lystra of the Office of Secretary of Defense reported that an increase in the use of military assets to combat wildland fires had been rejected by the Department.
Restrict the use of air tankers from a foreign government
The proposed legislation has an additional requirement:
The Chief of the Forest Service may not procure air tankers to fight wildfires from a foreign government unless the Chief of the Forest Service certifies to Congress that MAFFS air tanker support available from units of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve is being fully utilized or is not sufficient to address wildfires on National Forest System land.
On June 6 the U.S. Forest Service announced that that they had arranged to temporarily hire a CV-580 air tanker from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. At that time the two DC-10 air tankers based in California that carry five times more retardant than the CV-580s were not hired. Then on June 11 the USFS announced that they had activated on a call when needed contract (CWN) one of the two American-based DC-10s and also borrowed three more Canadian CV-580s. The USFS currently does not have a contract with Evergreen’s American-based 747 air tanker that carries 10 times more retardant than a CV-580.
A Canadian-owned, UK-built air tanker is being used today on fires in the United States. Missoula-based Neptune Aviation is leasing a BAe-146 from Tronos, the Canadian company that converted the airliner into an air tanker. Neptune has been awarded a contract for two more BAe-146s and expects to bring them on later this year. Aero Flite of Kingman, Arizona was also awarded a contract recently, for one air tanker, and is partnering with Conair of Abbotsford, British Columbia to convert an RJ85, which is similar to a BAe-146.
Status of the proposed legislation
The bill has only been introduced and has seen no action other than being referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Sightings of a meteor grounded the air tankers working on the Springer fire west of Colorado Springs on Wednesday. There were numerous reports of the meteor from New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas including the pilot of an air tanker making a drop on the fire. The Associated Press quoted Steve Segin, a spokesperson for the Springer fire, as saying the air tanker “landed as they normally do to reload, and for safety reasons they grounded themselves until they could figure out what it was they saw”.
A TV station in Denver, 7News, reported:
The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center said planes were grounded after the reports started coming in just after 2:30 p.m.
It was determined that the object was a meteor that broke up in the air over Kansas on a trajectory that would carry it to Florida.
None of the debris hit the ground in Colorado.
Aircraft were released to resume flying at 4 p.m., the Fire Coordination Center said.
This may be the first time that firefighting aircraft were grounded because of a meteor.
It is difficult to tell, when observing a meteor that is falling thousands of miles an hour, how far away it is. There were several reports from people in Colorado who thought it was nearby, but it was actually hundreds of miles away and there were no indications that any portions of it hit the earth. After grounding the air tankers for 90 minutes, let’s not even call this a near miss.
Wildland firefighter dies in Greece
The Associated Press is reporting that a firefighter working on a wildfire in Greece died Wednesday. A fire department spokesperson said the 28-year old felt unwell and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The firefighter was battling a fire that was burning inside an air force base west of Athens primarily used by firefighting and transport planes.
Our sincere condolences go out to the firefighter’s family and coworkers.
Escaped prescribed fire in North Carolina burns 21,000 acres
A prescribed fire on the Croatan National Forest that escaped on Father’s Day, named the “Dad Fire”, has now burned over 21,000 acres ten miles south of New Bern, North Carolina. The fire is 60 percent contained and has run up costs of $400,000. Smoke from the fire is causing problems for some residents and air quality alerts have been issued for 12 counties.
Congressman Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., called for an investigation Tuesday.
“Our No. 1 priority is to get the fire contained,” said Jones, in a news release. “However, I share the concerns of many Eastern North Carolinians as to how this poorly planned ‘prescribed burn’ is negatively affecting tourism, public health and taxpayers who are being asked to pick up the tab to fight a fire that could have been avoided.”
District Ranger Pancho Smith says even though some prescribed fires do turn into wildfires like this one, he does not regret conducting them.
“One of the big advantages in this country of controlled burns, and on national forest systems across the country, is the reduction of fuel on the forest floor. If we leave it out, when we do get a fire start, a wildfire, there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Smith.
The fire is being managed by Cherry’s Type 3 Incident Management Team.
Texas Forest Service receives Pulaski Award
Congratulations to the Texas Forest Service. Following is the text from a news release:
June 21, 2012 – COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas Forest Service was presented last week with the Pulaski Award, a national honor for outstanding service in wildland firefighting.
The award, commending the agency for its response during the 2011 wildfire season, is presented annually by the National Interagency Fire Center. It was announced at the Southern Group of State Foresters annual conference in Louisville, Ky.
The coveted 30-inch bronze statue is named after U.S. Forest Service Ranger Ed Pulaski, who led a crew to safety during the Great Fire of 1910. First presented in 1998, this is the first time the Pulaski Award has come to Texas. It will stay with Texas Forest Service for one year then will be shipped to the next recipient.
Texas Forest Service Associate Director Mark Stanford said the recognition is an honor for the emergency responders who bravely served Texas during last year’s unprecedented wildfire season. More than 30,000 wildfires burned almost 4 million acres, destroying 2,946 homes across the state.
The wildfires were suppressed with assistance from more than 16,000 emergency responders from all 50 states, along with 239 dozers, 954 engines and 246 aircraft.
“We accept this award on behalf of all the local, state and interagency firefighters who participated in the 2011 wildfire season,” Stanford said. “They’re the ones who really earned this award.”
Gary Bowers, chairman of the National Interagency Fire Center Governing Board, wrote in a letter to Texas Forest Service that the agency demonstrated “exceptional work in interagency cooperation and coordination, safety of their firefighters and the public, the development of partnerships and group performance in fire management and suppression.”
“It is our hope that collaboration efforts such as this will increasingly inspire and inform new cooperative efforts across the country,” Bowers wrote. “Congratulations on this award and the excellent work that it recognizes.”
Today a far right-wing web site that usually writes about politics ran an article about air tankers. The author, a well known pundit, blames President Obama for politicizing fire suppression, while she politicizes fire suppression to the extreme.
I knew this would happen eventually, but it’s sad that this day has finally arrived. Up until now it’s been a small bipartisan group of politicians who have criticized how the administration has been handling the management of air tankers. Most of them, on the surface anyway, appeared to actually be pushing the administration to improve the safety and efficiency of our fire suppression capabilities, rather than turning it into a partisan issue.
One of the author’s main points is the cancellation of the contract with Aero Union for their eight P-3 air tankers. Unlike the information provided on that web site, the generally accepted reason for the cancellation was that the contract required regular safety inspections which the new management of the company was not performing. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the previous owner had been running the company very well for a long time, but the new team failed to participate in a Continued Airworthiness Program which the USFS felt was critical to ensure the safety of the crews flying those very, very old aircraft. However, Aero Union claims all of the inspections were done and their paperwork was complete. Too many pilots have died in the last 57 years flying air tankers that should have been hanging in museums instead of flying into smokey canyons. The USFS said the new owners of Aero Union were not in compliance with a critical portion of the contract related to safety, so it was cancelled.
Tanker 42, a CV-580, at JEFFCO, June 9, 2012. Photo by Shane Hervey
Jeremy Meyer of the Denver Post has written a well-researched article about the current state of what is left of the federal air tanker fleet, cut by 80 percent over the last 10 years. He did something that few reporters have done. He actually read some of the largely ignored studies that well-respected experts have completed on how to improve the safety and efficiency of aerial firefighting.
One of the most authoritative studies was contributed by the Blue Ribbon Panel, convened after two museum-age air tankers literally fell apart in midair in 2002. That report as well as the other studies can be found on our Wildfire Documents page. The Blue Ribbon Panel was co-chaired by Jim Hall, former Chairman of the National Transportation Safety board who has an opinion about the current state of the air tanker fleet.
You should read the article, but here are some excerpts:
It’s impossible to know whether the High Park fire could have been stalled in its early stages on June 9 when the lightning-caused fire blew up.
First signs of the fire were called in to dispatchers about 6 a.m. A smaller single-engine air tanker, which can carry about 800 gallons of retardant, was over the fire by 9 a.m.
A heavy air tanker sent from Grand Junction was on the fire by noon, according to Steve Segin, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
[…]
The federal government convened the blue-ribbon panel to study the system, which resulted in a scathing report that blasted the Forest Service’s air tanker system, calling it “unsustainable” and the industry’s safety record of 136 dead pilots since 1958 “abysmal.” At least four large air tankers have crashed since then, killing 10 people, according to a website tracking the fatalities.
The 2002 panel recommended a host of fixes, including that the fleet be modernized, pilots receive more training, planes get more inspections and the contracting process be changed.
[…]
Hall, the blue-ribbon panel chair, said he has been dismayed by the lack of urgency in Congress as the threat of fire in the West has increased because of climate change and an epidemic of beetle-killed trees.
“We put out a report 10 years ago that is as current as if we had issued it yesterday,” Hall said. “This reliance on old military aircraft is not the way that the country needs to address a threat this serious. Why the Forest Service or anyone would think individuals who are putting their lives on the line to save homes and lives should be flying that type of aircraft is beyond me.”
Seven next-generation airplanes over the next two years is a good start but not adequate, said Gabbert, whose blog has been following every process.
“It doesn’t come close to fixing the problem,” he said. “Experts say we need 30 or 40 or even 50. This decision should have been made 10 to 20 years ago. They knew this day would come. Most of the Western U.S.’s fire season hasn’t even started yet.
“When the West really gets into the fire season, that will be the proof.”
the DC-10 air tankers has dropped about 373,600 gallons of retardant during 33 sorties on seven wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico over the last 10 days. The fires were: Little Bear fire, 257 fire, Grand fire, Poco fire, Six Shooter fire, Fox fire, and 177 fire. They were all in Arizona except the Little Bear which was in New Mexico.
