Our friends at Prepared BC in British Columbia put together this graphic about about preparing your home to resist a wildfire.
And, when disaster hits, there may not be time to collect emergency supplies. Ensure you have grab-and-go kits for your home, office and vehicle. They should all contain water and supplies for a minimum of 72 hours.
While Geordie Ferguson was loading fire retardant into air tankers to fight the Puntzi Lake Fire 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Williams Lake, British Columbia, he found out that his house burned in the fire. But he kept loading air tankers.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for Mr. Ferguson.
Below are excerpts from an article at GlobalNews.ca:
As his house burned to the ground, Geordie Ferguson was doing what he always does: thinking about others.
“I had a job to do,” says the man who loaded 29 planes with fire retardant on the day he lost his home next to Puntzi Lake.
“I could not put myself first. I could not hold my head down and pout and cry. I had planes to load, I had more houses to save. I had a community depending on me to do my job, and I did it.”
Ferguson works as a loader technician for ICL Canada. For the last eight years, he’s lived in a home on the shores of Puntzi Lake, driving 15 minutes each day to his job at the Royal Canadian Air Force station on Puntzi Mountain.
In the summer, he services the many planes using the base to fight fires throughout the Chilcotin and Cariboo regions.
“We supply the manpower, pumps and retardants to forestry for loading the aircraft for fighting the forest fires. Those guys are my heroes. The guys in the aircraft, the ground crew, everyone involved [in fighting fires] is a stellar person,” said Ferguson.
He made a quick call to a friend, who confirmed that while his house was gone, his dog had escaped and was being taken care of.
Then Ferguson went back to work. He’s stayed there, working and sleeping at the base, ever since.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else. Once I learned my dog was safe, I was staying here. Anyone who was trying to get me out of here, win lose or draw, it’d be one hell of a fight. I am here, I’m going to load planes,” he says.
“All I wanted could do is make sure I could save other people’s houses and some lives in between, and be supportive of ground crew. Everything else is immaterial.”
Ferguson lost everything but his dog, wallet, iPhone, iPad and pickup truck.
“I had a lot of things, but I can get new things. None of that matters to me. None of that is important in life. It’s what I signed up to do, and the job that I have is a proud, prestigious job, and I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
“I’m just a simple man, and everyone deserves more of a prop than I do. They hired me to load planes, and come hell or high water, I’m going to load planes,” he says.
“I was brought up old-school. There was no whining, or would ofs, or thinking about yourself. Think about others. And let’s get the job done, and we’ll work out all the other stuff later.”…
Multiple structures have been destroyed in a 7,000-hectare (17,300-acre) wildfire at Puntzi Lake about 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Williams Lake, British Columbia.
The Cariboo Regional District reported on July 10 that one resort, two permanent homes, one seasonal home and multiple outbuildings on a total of four properties were confirmed lost as a result of the Puntzi Lake fire. All affected property owners have been notified.
The video below shows the impacts to the structures near the shore of Puntzi Lake.
As of July 11 approximately 90 properties were affected by an Evacuation Order and 183 properties were in the Evacuation Alert area, according to the Cariboo Regional District.
Firefighting resources on scene July 11 from the BC Wildfire Service included two airtankers, four helicopters, 102 firefighters, 26 support personnel and 9 pieces of heavy equipment.
A single engine air tanker fighting the fire crashed in Puntzi Lake Friday afternoon, July 10. The Air Tractor 802-F Fire Boss amphibious air tanker was scooping water from the lake at about 2:15 p.m. when the Conair plane had some sort of difficulty and sank. The pilot was not injured, according to Bill Yearwood with Transportation Safety Board.
A single engine air tanker crashed in a lake in British Columbia Friday afternoon, July 10. The Air Tractor 802-F Fire Boss amphibious air tanker was scooping water from Puntzi Lake (map) at about 2:15 p.m. when the Conair plane had some sort of difficulty and sank. The pilot was not injured, according to Bill Yearwood with Transportation Safety Board.
Mr. Yearwood said,“We are quite familiar with the aircraft and its operation and there is no information to suggest there’s been any problems in advance of this.”
The fire that the aircraft was working on is on the west side of Puntzi Lake, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Williams Lake. At the last report it had burned about 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres).
This was the 4th crash or serious incident involving a Conair single engine air tanker in the last 13 months.
On May 22, 2015 another Conair 802-F Fire Boss crashed in Alberta, killing the pilot.
An engine failure on Conair’s Air Tanker 699, an Air Tractor AT-802A, during training resulted in damage to a float upon landing. The incident occurred April 11, 2015 on Harrison Lake, BC, 33 nm NNE of Abbotsford.
A Conair Air Tractor 802-F Fireboss crashed and and sank August 14, 2014 while scooping water on Chantslar Lake in British Columbia, Canada about 30 kilometers west of Puntzi Mountain. Jeff Berry of Conair said the pilot was able to exit the Single Engine Air Tanker, but was held overnight in a hospital in William’s Lake and released Friday morning.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Chris.
This is an interesting video of a wildfire in Canada. Contrary to the description with the video that we referenced earlier, it was shot in Nelson, British Columbia. (Thanks Fis and Keith.)
In the second half of the video the fire appears to be influenced by a down-slope breeze.
The video shows multiple retardant drops by Air Spray’s Tanker 489, a Lockheed Electra, on a fire in Kokanee Creek Provincial Park in British Columbia (map).
Here is the description provided by the videographer:
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“Published on 4 Jul 2015
Fire season has arrived in the Kootenays! This video was taken July 3rd, 2015 showing the new small forest fire near Kokanee Creek Provincial Park towards Kokanee Glacier. This video features many of the aircraft involved in battling the blaze including water bombers, air tankers and helicopters with bambi buckets.
–The aircraft featured in this video include:
–Air Spray Lockheed L-188 Electra Airtanker
–Air Spray Twin Commander 690 Birddog C-FZRQ
–Cessna Caravan Birddog
–Selkirk Mountain Helicopters Aerospatiale AS 350 B-2 C-GSKL with water bucket
–Air Spray Air Tractor 802 Fire Boss Amphibious Tanker Plane
This was my first time ever seeing aircraft fighting a wildfire in person and it was truly an impressive sight. It was especially cool seeing the massive Electra turboprop diving down into the valley near Kokanee Creek Park and dumping fire retardant onto the flames.”
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BONUS VIDEO
This video of an MD-87 dropping on a fire in Laguna Canyon in southern California on July 3, 2015 is shot from pretty far away but you can clearly see the retardant and after the drop, the air tanker as it exits the area closer to the camera. It looked like an excellent drop. I could not make out the tanker number.
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BONUS VIDEO #2, added July 9, 2015
I found this video today, and it looks like the same air tanker, the MD-87, making another drop on the fire in Laguna Canyon. It’s interesting how at 0:48 it disappears into a canyon while making the drop.
Britt Coulson of The Coulson Group sent us these photos of the wildfire burning along the lake near the company’s Martin Mars base in British Columbia. One of their S-61 Type 1 helicopters assigned to the fire can be seen in two of the photos, the black and white ship.
Earlier we wrote about the inquiry the British Columbia Wildfire Service made about possibly activating the Martin Mars using their existing call when needed contract.
In the video above the Martin Mars makes a demonstration water drop in Coal Harbor in Vancouver on Forestry Day during the Olympics in 2010. If you like the sound of four 18-cylinder big-ass radial engines, turn up the sound.
(UPDATED at 9:33 p.m. MT, July 6, 2015)
Britt Coulson told us Monday evening that their company already has a Call When Needed contract for the Martin Mars with the British Columbia Wildfire Service but the aircraft has not been activated yet. The Coulson Group told the agency that if they activated it by the end of the day on Monday the Martin Mars could be serviceable and fighting fires on Thursday. As of 6:11 p.m. MT, the Coulsons had not heard from BCWS.
Mr. Coulson also said the wildfire on Sproat Lake is close to their Martin Mars facilities:
We can sit on our dock [on Sproat Lake] and watch the action its so close to our house, this is the first time in our history we have ever fought fire locally.
We have an S61 [large Type 1 helicopter] on it. The Mars base is just down the lake and you can sit in the airplane and watch the fire. It’s so smoky in the valley no traditional airtankers could get in but because the Mars scoops and is all low level it would have made a huge difference.
A great deal of misinformation about contracts and the B.C. government using or not using the Martin Mars is floating around in the mainstream media as well as the social media.
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(Originally published at 7 p.m. MT, July 6, 2015)
Several media outlets are reporting that the British Columbia government has talked with the Coulson Group about the possibility of using the Martin Mars air tanker on fires currently burning in the province. One fire is in Sproat Lake Provincial Park a short distance from the aircraft’s base on Sproat Island.
Below is an excerpt from an article in the VanCityBuzz on July 6:
…“We provided the information to them, and that’s where it’s at,” [Wayne Coulson] said. “We’re watering the Mars tomorrow morning and we’re going to start test flying it.”
While there are more cost-effective options available, in the right circumstances, it can now be called on to supplement the airtanker fleet.
The pilots who are test flying it will be the ones who would conduct the operation if the provincial government decides to use the aircrafts. Coulson said the earliest it could be deployed would either be Wednesday or Thursday.
The Martin Mars can scoop up to 7,200 gallons of water and then mix it internally with Class A foam or gel concentrates. The aircraft is not amphibious and must always land on water. It was built in the 1940s and after its service in the U.S. Navy worked as an air tanker in Canada for several decades. The U.S. Forest Service had it on a call when needed contract in 2008 and 2009 and occasionally based it at Lake Elsinore in southern California and Lake Shasta in the north part of the state.
We reported on May 24 that Britton Coulson of The Coulson Group said their company will be using the Martin Mars to train 14 test pilots from China during two weeks in late July who will be the first to fly the new TA-600 amphibious aircraft being built now. The training will include ground, water taxi, flight, as well as scooping and dropping water. The trainee pilots will go through classroom and hands on training using Coulson’s Hawaii Martin Mars aircraft, actually taxiing and flying the huge flying boat.
The British Columbia Wildfire Service released this information late Sunday night, July 5, 2015:
We sign off with heavy hearts tonight. We were saddened to learn that a contract tree faller working with us on the Old Sechelt Mine fire suffered a fatal injury while felling a danger tree earlier today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his friends, family and co-workers.
This is a tragic reminder of the dangerous work being done by personnel across the province to respond to wildfires.
Our sincere condolences go out to the family, friends, and co-workers.
The Old Sechelt Mine Fire has burned 80 hectares (198 acres) since it was discovered July 2 two km northwest of Sechelt.
UPDATE at 7:30 p.m. MT, July 6, 2015: Kelowna Now reports that the coroner has identified the faller as John Joe Phare, age 60, from Roberts Creek.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Mike.
(UPDATE at 10:27 a.m. PT, June 12, 2015)
The British Columbia Wildfire Management Branch says the Cisco Road Fire south of Lytton, B.C. has been mapped at 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres). The size will increase as the fire crews conduct strategic burning operations.
Firefighters will be watching for high winds today — predicted to be southerly for most of Friday morning, with the chance of a shift to northerly later in the afternoon. Crews did experience a trace amount of precipitation on some areas of the fire Friday morning.
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(UPDATE at 5:29 p.m. PT, June 11, 2015)
The British Columbia Wildfire Management Branch said at 2:58 PT that the new wildfire, now named Cisco Road Fire, west of the Fraser River south of Lytton (map) has burned about 600 hectares (1,482 acres) and is zero percent contained:
This fire is displaying aggressive fire behaviour (Rank 5) and is located in difficult terrain [Rank 5 fire behaviour is a crown fire that has the potential for short-range spotting] . Winds 40 gusting 60 km/hr [25 mph gusting to 37 mph] from the south are continuing to challenge suppression efforts. There are currently 22 firefighters on site, with 20 more en route. Three helicopters are providing bucking support for ground crews.
An Evacuation Alert and Order have been issued by the Lytton First Nations Band for nearby First Nations communities.
I wonder about the future of the live cam that is getting these great photos? If the wind shifts to come out of the north, it will probably be toast, unless it can be evacuated, or unless it has sufficient clearance around it. I think the cam is looking north, and that jives with the south wind described above..
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(Originally published at 2:32 p.m. PT, June 11, 2015)
A new wildfire south of Lytton, B.C. has gotten a running start up a steep slope, as you can see in the photo that was captured by a live camera operated by Lyttonnet. Not much information is available yet, but CBC News reported at 1:57 p.m. PT that it was 150 hectares (370 acres) on the west side of the Fraser River. The B.C. Wildfire Management Branch says the fire was reported around noon and is threatening structures near Lytton, roughly 100 kilometers north of Hope.
Lytton wildfire covering 150 hectares west of Fraser River http://t.co/jzQyCyDAcG pic.twitter.com/TjKhQUeQ8H
— Brady Strachan (@BradyStrachan) June 11, 2015
Here is another photo grabbed from the live camera earlier in the day:
