Tag: helicopter

Jeff Zimmernan took this amazing photo of helicopter 205ww after it make a hard landing on the Blackburn Canyon fire near Tehachapi, California September 4, 2011. Jeff said the pilot was making water drops and had to release the bucket, then auto rotated to a hard landing. You can see that the skids flattened out as designed. Paramedics took the pilot to a hospital.

We wish the best for the pilot. And thanks, Jeff, for the photo.

On August 11 I happened to be passing by the airport at Chester, in northeast California. It was 6 p.m., quitting time, and the U. S. Forest Service helitack crew was walking over to their cars, but one of them was nice enough to give me and my motorcycle riding partner a brief tour of the three Type 1 and Type 2 “restricted use” helicopters they were managing. The term “restricted” means they are not approved for transporting passengers.

 

It has been just over two years since we visited the wildfire helitack base at the Custer, South Dakota airport during their open house which commemorated 50 years of service. Unfortunateley when I stopped by the other day, there was no barbecue grill stocked with hot dogs and hamburgers like last time. Poor planning on my part.

This year Custer helitack has the same combination of helicopters they have had for the last four years, one Type 3 and a Type 1.

The Vertol crew told me that the helicopter has been used for approximately 160 flight hours so far this fire season.

Note the two decals, U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, on the door of the white 4-door pickup. The helicopter operation is interagency. In addition to the obvious USFS funding, the NPS contributes that truck and a crewperson or two.

Updated at 3:47 p.m. MT, May 26

Jumpers from lower 48 dispatched to Alaska

The @BLMNIFC Twitter account sent this message Thursday afternoon:

Boise BLM jump base sent 16 smokejumpers to Alaska today due to the increased fire weather conditions. Alaska currently has 3 large fires.

Wildfire contractor voluntarily provides crew to assist with tornado recovery

A company that usually provides contract firefighting crews to government agencies to suppress wildfires, is voluntarily providing a crew to help assist with search and rescue following the devastating tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri. Chloeta Fire, headquartered in Oklahoma City, dispatched a crew on May 24.

Need identified to implement national wildfire strategy in Canada

Following the Slave Lake fire in northern Alberta, there has been a push to implement the national wildfire strategy that was developed but not funded in 2005. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Canadian Press:

While it may have been impossible to save Slave Lake, Stocks said more funding for the national strategy could lead to fireproofing of buildings being improved, firewalls being built around communities, and public education campaigns.

Money must also be found for new firefighting equipment and hiring and training new fire personnel to replace the hundreds who retire every year, said Stocks. Declining to name a figure, the amount should be decided by the country’s forestry ministers, he said.

But convincing governments to spend money on fighting forest fires when their priorities are focused on health care, education or regional issues may be a tough sell, he said.

A spokesman for Natural Resources Canada said the strategy was created as a framework to guide decision making and jurisdiction-specific investment decisions, noting the provinces and territories are responsible for wildfire management.

Residents of Slave Lake are told 374 lots burned in the wildfire

Some of the residents are being allowed back into the town after one-third of it burned on May 15. From the Canadian Press:

Residents of fire-ravaged northern Alberta communities in and near Slave Lake are finally learning if their homes were engulfed by flames.

The town has released a detailed photographic map which shows 374 lots were destroyed by the wildfires that swept through the area Sunday evening. Another 52 lots were damaged. There is also a map of homes in the nearby Municipal District of Lesser Slave River which shows 59 lots were destroyed and 32 were damaged.

Flames forced roughly 7,000 people to flee from their homes.

The mayor of Slave Lake, Karina Pillay-Kinnee answered questions about the recovery from the fire on Wednesday.

Pilot identified that was killed in helicopter crash

Jean-Luc Deba, 54, has been named as the pilot that died in the helicopter crash last week while working on the Slave Lake fire in northern Alberta. Mr. Deba was an employee of Campbell Helicopters out of Abbotsford, B.C. The helicopter crashed into Lesser Slave Lake, but the cause has not been released.

In tree felling accident, a laceration was caused by a hard hat

A facilitated learning analysis has been released for a tree felling accident on the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Michigan. A sawyer was struck on the head by a falling tree, but the only injury, a nasty laceration, was caused by the hard hat. Here is an excerpt from the  Lessons Learned section:

5. The injury was caused by the hard hat. While the team looked at the incident the recent Tech Tip “Alternate Head Protection Available” draft released in March 2011 by MTDC came to our attention. In the Tech Tip it states, “Although Bullard Hard Hats meet safety standards a limited number of users now find the hard hats to be uncomfortable. The redesigned suspension system provides less space between the hard hat and users head and may allow sharp corners to cause pressure points.” There was discussion among the team that we could not identify which part of the hardhat had actually caused the injury (there was no blood or hair found on the hard hat after the incident). However, we can easily see how one of the corners of the rear suspension system 8 bracket could have caused the injury upon impact of the tree to the hardhat.