Man’s house burned while he loaded air tankers with retardant

Puntzi Fire, structures burned
A photo of some of the structures that burned in the Puntzi Lake Fire in British Columbia.

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.”…

Structures destroyed in Puntzi Lake Fire in B.C.

Puntzi Lake Wildfire
Puntzi Lake Wildfire. Photo by British Columbia Wildfire Service.

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.

Puntzi Lake Wildfire structures destroyed
Structures destroyed on the Puntzi Lake Fire. Screen grab from video by Cariboo Regional District.

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.

map Puntzi Lake Wildfire
Map of heat detected by a satellite on the Puntzi Lake Fire,  4 a.m. MT, July 11.
Puntzi Lake Wildfire
Puntzi Lake Wildfire July 9, 2015. Photo by British Columbia Wildfire Service.

130 U.S. firefighters deployed to wildfires in Canada

Five wildland fire suppression crews and 30 fireline management personnel are being mobilized to Canada to assist with fire suppression operations. Canada is experiencing an intense fire season and has requested wildland firefighting assistance from the United States.

The five 20-person wildland fire suppression crews were dispatched through the National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho. Four of the crews are comprised of U.S. Forest Service firefighters from California, while one is a hotshot crew from the National Park Service in Estes Park, Colorado. The crews and the fireline management personnel will arrive in Edmonton, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, over the weekend and will deploy to wildland fire incidents in both provinces. The U.S. also sent one heavy air tanker, a BAe-146, to Grande Prairie, Canada on July 5.

Air tanker crashes in British Columbia lake

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).

Puntzi Lake air tanker crash
The pointer marks the location of Puntzi Lake, the site of the air tanker crash in British Columbia.

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.

AT-802F Fire Boss
File photo of one of Conair’s AT-802F Fire Boss air tankers. Photo by Peter Unmuth.

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

Fire in Jasper National Park requires evacuation of park visitors by helicopter

Fire near Excelsior Creek
Fire near Excelsior Creek in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. Photo by Parks Canada.

(UPDATED at 3:40 p.m. MT, July 10, 2015)

Map of fire in Excelsior Creek
The brown and red dots represent heat detected by a satellite of a fire in Excelsior Creek in Jasper National Park. The most recent detections were at 5:18 a.m., July 10, 2015.

The map above shows the approximate location of the fire at 5:18 a.m. on June 10 in Excelsior Creek in Jasper National Park in Alberta. The fire in the Maligne Valley is approximately 9 miles (15 km) east of the community of Jasper.

Friday morning it was reported to have burned approximately 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres). Friday afternoon a light rain fell in the area, slowing the spread for a while.

****

(Originally published at 10 a.m. MT, July 10, 2015)

With a wildfire in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada spreading rapidly, fire managers evacuated about 82 people, including 52 that were flown off the Skyline trail by helicopter.

The fire was reported at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday approximately 15 km (9 miles) south of the municipality of Jasper. Visitors are being evacuated from the Maligne Valley, the Skyline trail, and Maligne Lake.

Below is an excerpt from the Edmonton Journal:

“We see this as the highest priority fire in the national parks right now,” said David Smith, a fire and vegetation specialist for Jasper who is also serving as incident commander.

According to Smith, the fire is between 200 and 250 hectares [494 to 618 acres] in size, moving at about 15 metres [49 feet] per minute. As temperatures drop and the sun sets, the fire is expected to “settle down” overnight.

Crews are currently fighting the fire by air only as conditions prove too hazardous for ground crews at this time. Despite the high number of fires across the prairies, there are crews slated to arrive in Jasper Friday, before noon.

Though the fire is currently out of control, Smith said people in Jasper need not worry about their safety. At this time there are no park facilities in the way of the fire and because the wind is pushing the fire up to Maligne Lake, Smith said, “the town of Jasper is 100-per-cent safe.”

The video below is a 2-hour time-lapse of the smoke from the fire, shot Thursday from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., compressed to 30 seconds.

These next photos are general shots of fires and firefighters in Alberta, sourced from the Facebook page for “Alberta Wildfire Info”.

Fire north of Slave Lake
Fire north of Slave Lake, July 9, 2015
Firefighters from Jalisco, Mexico
Firefighters from Jalisco, Mexico assisting with wildfires in Alberta.

Alberta firefighters

Alberta firefighter

Time-lapse of a fire in Canada

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.

 

Acres burned in Alaska and Canada far ahead of average

Big Beaver Creek Fire
The Alaska Highway was closed to all traffic due to aggressive fire behavior observed on the Big Beaver Creek Fire in British Columbia Wednesday afternoon. The highway is closed between 386 km (Mile 250) and 418 km (Mile 260). British Columbia Wildfire Service photo.

It is barely mid-summer and wildfire activity in Alaska and western Canada has been much higher than average for this time of the year. As of July 8, the number of acres burned in Alaska is the second highest ever recorded for an entire year — 2004 holds the present record, but on a year to date basis, the state now is ahead of the same date in 2004 for acres burned.

The area blackened in Canada already exceeds the annual 10-year average for an entire year. The government has activated about 1,000 military personnel to help fight wildfires in Saskatchewan. Firefighters from eastern Canada have been mobilized to assist in the western provinces, and one BAe-146 air tanker from Missoula, Montana is also lending a hand.

Canada weeks area burned through July 1, 2015
Canada area burned on a weekly basis through July 1, 2015.

Alaska is also receiving help from firefighters in the lower 48 states. For example on Tuesday five 20-person crews were dispatched from California to Alaska, while snow flurries have been occurring for the past several days on the Inyo National Forest in California. Other Forests in the state received rain on Wednesday.

Here are some wildfire numbers, current on July 8, 2015:

  • United States: 30,017 fires, 3,821,726 acres
  • Alaska: 650 fires, 3,208,107 acres
  • Canada: 4,672 fires, 6,546,562 acres
Canada fires, July 8, 2015
Canada fires, July 8, 2015
Alaska Fires July 8, 2015
Alaska Fires July 8, 2015

Video of Tanker 489 dropping on a fire in B.C.

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:

****

“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.”

****

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.

****

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.

Photos of helicopters working the fire on Sproat Lake in British Columbia

Fire on Sproat Lake S-61
One of Coulson’s S-61 helicopters working the fire on Sproat Lake in British Columbia. Photo by Britt Coulson.

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.

helicopter fire on Sproat Lake
One of Coulson’s S-61 helicopters working the fire on Sproat Lake in British Columbia. Photo by Britt Coulson.
Helicopters fire Sproat Lake
Helicopters working the fire on Sproat Lake in British Columbia. Photo by Britt Coulson.

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.

Report: B.C. government makes inquiry about using Martin Mars

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.