Tag: fuel

The lingering effects of the pandemic have left a symptom that may affect aerial firefighting. The logistics system for Jet A aviation fuel atrophied when air travel dropped sharply. Now that business and leisure travel have rebounded, competition is heating up for what is now a limited amount of fuel that is being distributed. Larger airports served by aviation fuel pipelines are in better shape than smaller facilities that depend on a person driving truck to their location.

Fire Aviation talked to over a dozen people in the aerial firefighting community and confirmed that one air tanker base that serves large air tankers came very close to running out of Jet A, but a truck arrived just in time. We were not able to confirm one report that another large base did run out.

One place where a fuel shortage could show up is at base heliports on wildland fires. The contractors who supply helicopters have their own fuel trucks, but if the product becomes scarce they might have to travel a farther distance to refill the tanks on the trucks. And the larger the helicopter, the more fuel they need. An example is the tanker trucks Coulson Aviation drives to fires which likely hold thousands of gallons to keep their CH-47 helicopters running . (See the photo at the top of this article.)

As of Thursday all of the bases for large air tankers in Washington and Oregon had a supply of fuel, but several smaller airports that serve Single Engine Air Tankers were having problems.

The airport at Lake County, Oregon 28 miles from the 236,000-acre Bootleg Fire exhausted their supply of Jet A earlier this week, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office reported.

“The Lake County Airport ran out of Jet A fuel July 11, 2021,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a press release Wednesday July 14. “Several surrounding airports also ran out of Jet A fuel and turned to the Lake County Airport for support. The Airport Manager had put in an order July 5, but because of a national shortage, the Lake County Airport was unable to get fuel until today. The Lake County Commissioners contacted State Representative E. Werner Reschke and the Department of Energy in an effort to find fuel for the Airport. The team made countless phone calls and sent emails to regional suppliers, airports and many other sources trying to fill the immediate order.”

The Lake County airport received 3,500 gallons on Wednesday and expected another 8,500 gallons Friday.

The Los Angeles Times interviewed Chris Kunkle, vice president of operations for the Central Coast Jet Center in Santa Maria, Calif., in Santa Barbara County, the home of an air tanker base that can serve air tankers of any size, including DC-10s.

“In the blink of an eye, we can have a fire here within our response area that can bring in one to three DC-10s and a bunch of variable-sized air tankers,” he said. “We can go from a couple thousand gallons a day to 50,000 to 60,000 gallons.”

He said he likes to keep 60,000 gallons at the airport, but is having trouble with limited deliveries. He fears running out if a large fire breaks out in the area.

Fire Aviation asked a spokesperson for the National Interagency Fire Center several questions about the fuel shortage issue, including if any air tanker or helicopter bases in the Western U.S. have recently run out of aviation fuel.

“The agencies that manage airtanker bases are aware of potential issues regarding the availability of jet fuel at smaller, rural airports in the West,” the National Interagency Fire Center said in a statement issued July 16. “However, there have been no significant impacts to wildland fire aviation operations. We continue to monitor the situation and consult with our aviation partners and industry representatives. As a contingency, at some locations we have identified alternate airports and airtanker bases that could be utilized should fuel supplies become low or run out.”