Firefighting aircraft on Twitter

Isaac notified us about these videos and photos. Thanks Isaac!

CL-415 clips a mast while scooping water in France

A video shot northwest of Marseille, France shows a CL-415 water-scooping air tanker clipping a mast on a barge in the Rhône River near the port of Vallabregues August 27, 2017.

Be sure and turn on the sound when watching the video.

Apparently no one was injured and the aircraft landed safely at Nîmes.

Below is a statement from Sécurité Civile that appears to be roughly translated from French:

The wing of the Fire-fighting plane is damaged, it will be unavailable for several weeks, there were projections on two barges, fortunately without making of wounded person. They are experimented and confirmed pilots who knew well the stretch of water. They managed to fly up to the base of Nîmes. The pilot and the co-pilot are shocked, they were suspended as a protective measure and are going to be examined by a specialized doctor who has to make sure that they are in capacity to re-fly.

The image below is a screenshot from the video at the 10-second mark just after the mast was sheared off. We added the yellow circle.

CL-415 broken mast
A screenshot from the video at the 10-second mark just after the mast was sheared off. We added the yellow circle.

More information.

Here is a photo of a very close call in 2016 with another Sécurité Civile air tanker:

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Kevin.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.

CL-415 over a beach in Italy

CL-414 at Vieste Puglia

Marco Ferrageau, who hails from the Netherlands, sent us this photo of a CL-414 that he took July 25, 2017 at Vieste, Puglia, Italy. He said it was scooping water from the ocean while fighting a nearby fire. Thanks Marco!

Scoopers at Redding

T-263 T-261

(Originally published at 6:27 p.m. MDT July 30, 2017.)

Ethan, who took this photo at Redding July 30, 2017, said it is the first time he has seen CL-415 water-scooping air tankers at Redding.

Left to right we see Aero-Flite tankers 263, (unknown in the center), and 261 on the right.

Thanks Ethan!

Scoopers on Lake Chatuge

Aero Flite tanker 262

Mark Carr sent us these photos he took November 18, 2016 of CL-415 water-scooping air tankers refilling at Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, Georgia. That was a busy time for firefighters in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and other areas in the southeast United States.

Aero Flite tanker 262

Two Aero-Flite scoopers began contracts this week

Two of Aero-Flite’s CL-415 scoopers, Tankers 260 and 263, began the Mandatory Availability Period on their exclusive use contracts on Monday. The company is hoping their other CL-415’s, Tankers 261 and 262, will be awarded call when needed contracts on the scooper solicitation that closed in March.

four CL-415 cody wy
Four CL-415 water-scooping air tankers at Cody, Wyoming during the week of August 1, 2016. Photo by Becky Lester Hawkins.

Aero-Flite also has two RJ85’s actively working on contracts and two others begin in the third week of May. They have one or two others available as call when needed depending on maintenance status.

Aero-Flite's Tanker 161
Aero-Flite’s Tanker 161, an RJ85, at McClellan, March 23, 2016. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

Wildfires kill three on Portugal’s Madeira Island; fires force thousands to evacuate on the mainland

Map of Madeira

Above: A Google Earth 3-D map of the Portuguese Island of Madeira, looking northwest.

(UPDATED at 7:25 a.m. MDT August 13, 2016)

The satellite image below from Friday August 12, shows fewer heat sources on Madeira and less smoke from the wildfires.

Madeira fires August 12, 2016
The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite over Madeira on August 12, 2016. Smoke can be seen drifting to the southeast. Click to enlarge.

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(Originally published at 4:42 MDT August 2, 2016)

Wildfires on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira have taken the lives of three civilians and destroyed over 150 homes while firefighters on the mainland are battling nearly 200 blazes. The fire has reached Madeira’s largest city, Funchal, which has a population of 110,000.

Madeira has no firefighting aircraft. They sometimes borrow CL-215’s, CL-415’s, (both are water-scooping air tankers) and Polish SOKOL helicopters from the Canary Islands 280 miles to the south.

Italy and Morocco have sent a total of three firefighting aircraft across the ocean to help control the fires. Russia has dispatched two Be-200 water-scooping air tankers, which last operated in Portugal in 2006.

Map of fires on Madeira
The red dots on the photo of Madeira represent heat detected by a NASA satellite on August 10, 2016. Smoke can be seen drifting off to the southwest.

Madeira is in the north Atlantic, 530 miles southwest of Portugal. The terrain on the popular tourist island is very steep which no doubt presents a challenging environment for firefighters.

Below is an excerpt from an article in the New York Times:

…The fire caused chaos, panic and despair around Funchal. Portuguese television showed elderly people, many of them barefoot or in wheelchairs, being escorted to safety in the middle of the night by emergency services or neighbors. Residents watched in tears as their homes burned down, and some were seen running around helplessly, trying to cover their faces to minimize smoke inhalation…

The four images in the tweet below are very impressive.

This video, uploaded today, was shot from a cable car as it travelled over areas affected by the fire. It’s a little long at 18 minutes, but if you skip around it gives an overview of some of the effects of the fire.