helicopter Archives - Page 8 of 27

Saturday one-liners, August 25, 2012

Bill GabbertAugust 25, 2012August 25, 2019Uncategorizedarson, escaped prescribed fire, helicopter, night flying

Cygnet Fire in Yellowstone NP, August 24, 2012 Photo by Yellowtone National Park

The Cygnet Fire in Yellowstone National Park, 5 miles southeast of Norris Junction, experienced some growth and produced an impressive smoke column most of the day Friday. The estimated size earlier today was 750 acres. A Red Flag warning is in effect on Saturday until 9 p.m.

10 Tanker Air Carrier, which operates the two DC-10 air tankers, sent this via their @10Tanker Twitter account today:

Approaching 1 million gallons dropped on CA fires since arriving at MCC 8 days ago.

Two cousins who started the Wallow fire which became the largest fire in the history of Arizona, were convicted and sentenced to two days in jail.

If you are interested in firefighting helicopters, check out this excellent update on the status of the privately-owned helicopter providers.

A man convicted of burning down his own house may have committed suicide in the courtroom seconds after hearing the verdict.

A commission is looking into the Lower North Fork prescribed fire southwest of Denver which escaped on March 26, 2012 and burned 4,140 acres, killed 3 people, and burned 23 homes. Our earlier reports on the fire can be found here.

On August 16 we wrote about the US Forest Service’s plan to add one night-flying helicopter next year. Here is the PE Enterprise’s view on the subject.
Thanks go out to LM, Gary, Kelly, and Mark

Wildfire news, August 18, 2012

Bill GabbertAugust 18, 2012October 8, 2012Uncategorized747 air tanker, air tanker, DC-10, helicopter, NIMO6 Comments

Followup on the fatality of Anne Veseth

The Associated Press has an article that provides more information about Anne Veseth, the firefighter that was killed by a falling snag on Sunday, August 12.

“Her cards were up,” said mother Claire Veseth, 55, a nurse in this college town. “It was an act of God.”

Los Angeles City FD adds another helicopter to its fleet

The Los Angeles City Fire Department is leasing an Erickson Air Crane for four months. This baby has a forward-pointing water cannon designed for high-rise fires. It can fill its tank two different ways, by the usual hover-and-draft mode, or by lowering a pipe and scooping water as it flies at speed over a large water source.

42 uncontained large fires in the US

After having 70 uncontained large fires in the country on Wednesday, that number is now down to 40. The number of incident management teams committed, including Type 1, Type 2, NIMO, and Area Command, has declined from 31 to 28. Six military MAFFS C-130s are still actively working out of Boise and Sacramento.

Smoke from wildfires

The smoke map shows dense smoke in Idaho and also an interesting area of dense smoke over the Atlantic east of Maine.

Wildfire smoke map, 6:36 p.m. MT, August 18, 2012. NOAA (click to enlarge)

USFS issues RFI for Very Large Air Tankers

The U.S. Forest Service has issued a Request for Information which could lead to Call When Needed contracts for Very Large Air Tankers beginning next year continuing through 2015. 10 Tanker Air Carrier currently has a CWN contract for their two DC-10s, but it remains to be seen if any company with VLATs can succeed financially if they are only used for 60 to 100 hours each year, with no guarantees of ANY income. Evergreen in the past has not been interested in signing up their 20,000-gallon 747 Super Tanker on a CWN contract. The RFI specifies that the aircraft must be able to hold at least 10,000 gallons. The USFS expects to issue a Request for Proposals later in the year which they think could lead to one to three VLATs under CWN contracts in 2013. Or… it could lead to none.

Injured firefighter rescued by night-flying helicopter

Bill GabbertAugust 17, 2012March 11, 2013UncategorizedEMS, helicopter, hoist, night flying9 Comments

Saturday night, August 11, an injured firefighter was rescued by firefighters on the ground and a night-flying helicopter on the Ramsey fire on the Stanislaus National Forest eight miles east of Dorrington, California. The U.S. Forest Service will not have night-flying ability until one helicopter comes on board with those capabilities in 2013, but thankfully a Firehawk from Los Angeles County Fire Department was dispatched to hoist the firefighter out of an active fire area.

Here is an excerpt from a very interesting article in the Calaveras Enterprise:

…A large opening was made in the trees by a hot shot team to make room for the helicopter evacuation.

“When the helicopter came in for the rescue, the rotor wash was the biggest concern – stoking fires and kicking up ash and (burning) debris,” Jacobus said. “That was probably the biggest hardship for us to contend with.”

The copter first came in at 4:30 a.m. in the dark and dropped a rescuer to brief the ground team on how the helicopter crew wanted the patient packaged.

“They brought the helicopter in a second time for raise and evacuation,” Jacobus said. “We dealt with some pretty extreme rotor wash both times. It’s like being in the beginning part of a hurricane, but instead of blowing air, it’s blowing hot ash and churning sparks at you.”

We have written many times before about how important it is for a seriously injured firefighter to receive appropriate medical treatment in the “golden hour”. Night-flying helicopters can be very useful for slowing fires at night even more effectively than during the day. But they can also save lives, especially if they have hoist capabilities.

The right thing for the wildland fire agencies to do, is to have multiple night-flying capable helicopters, with hoists, if they are going to fight fire at night in remote areas. In addition, they should have hoist-capable helicopters available during daylight hours, if they are going to fight fire in remote areas (which include, what, 75 percent of the wildland fires that the federal agencies fight?). It is a health and safety issue, not a luxury. I am surprised that OSHA has not cited the wildland fire agencies for their failure to provide this capability. And it is not just the U.S. Forest Service that should be under the gun here. Let’s not leave out the National Park Service, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as state agencies.

USFS to use one night-flying helicopter next year

Bill GabbertAugust 16, 2012February 29, 2020Uncategorizedair tanker, helicopter, night flying, Station Fire5 Comments

Water drop on Eagle fire — A helicopter drops water on the Eagle fire in southern California, July 27, 2011. Photo by Lone Ranger.

The U.S. Forest Service has reversed course and decided to contract for one firefighting helicopter that can fly at night, becoming mission-capable in 2013. The helicopter, which will be based in southern California, will support wildfire suppression on Forest Service-protected lands within and adjacent to the Angeles, Cleveland, and San Bernardino National Forests, and the southern half of the Los Padres National Forest.

It has been years since the USFS had that capability. In 1977 a USFS helicopter and a Los Angeles county helicopter operating at night collided, killing one pilot and injuring another. Sometime after that the USFS abandoned night flying.

The USFS was criticized for attacking the 2009 Station fire near Los Angeles on the first night and the morning of the second day with strategy and tactics that were less than aggressive. The fire was three to four acres at 7 a.m. on the second day, but no air tankers or helicopters were used the first night or until later in the morning on the second day. The fire took off at mid-morning on day two and later burned 160,000 acres and killed two firefighters. Night-flying helicopters operated by Los Angeles County were not used the first night on the fire.

After the Station fire several politicians became involved in the controversy and pressured the USFS to restore the capability to use helicopters at night to drop water. The agency said they have been studying the concept, again, and announced today that they would tip-toe back into night flying, with a single helicopter in 2013.

The USFS is the lead federal agency managing the fixed-wing air tanker program, which has withered away from the 44 exclusive use large air tankers we had in 2002 to the 9 we have today. Air tankers and helicopters do not put out fires, but under the right conditions they can slow the fire enough to allow ground-based firefighters the opportunity to suppress it.

In our opinion, the U.S. Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management program is not aggressively attacking emerging fires, adapting to changing conditions, or effectively managing the aerial firefighting program. Some of this can be attributed to declining firefighting budgets that are requested by the administration, approved or modified by Congress, and signed by the President.

Helicopters at Salmon, Idaho

Bill GabbertAugust 12, 2012September 12, 2012Uncategorizedhelicopter, Idaho2 Comments

Skycrane at Salmon ID — Helicopter 795, a Sikorsky Skycrane, at Salmon, Idaho, August 12, 2012. Wildfire Today photo.

Here is a sampling of some of the helicopters that were based at the Salmon, Idaho airport, working on wildfires in southern Idaho on Sunday, August 12, 2012.

Sikorsky S-61N Coulson-Billings Flying Service — Sikorsky S-61N, owned by Coulson Aviation, operated by Billings Flying Service. Wildfire Today photo

Bell 205A-1 at Salmon ID — Bell 205A-1 owned by Heligroup Fire. Wildfire Today photo

Russian helicopter down in Turkey

Kelly AnderssonAugust 10, 2012August 25, 2019Uncategorizedhelicopter, Russia, Turkey1 Comment

Five people including three Russian firefighters were killed in the crash of a firefighting helicopter in the Koycegiz district of the Turkish province of Mugla. Radio Free Europe reported that the Russian helicopter was operated on the fire by Turkish and Russian crew members.

Turkey’s Forestry and Water Ministry says the helicopter crashed as it was headed into a valley fighting a fire near the village of Karacam. The Turkish Weekly reported that the helicopter hit a mountain slope and rolled down into a ravine. “The Kamov Ka-32 helicopter belonged to the Nefteyugansk Air Group,” said a Rosaviatsia spokesman. “The helicopter flew seven forest firefighting missions in the area through the day.”

A report by the Anatolia News Agency said the crash occurred near Otmanlar Village; the Russian-made Ka-32T helicopter crashed near the Kepez fire tower.

There were no survivors. A team of rescue workers is attempting to reach the crash site.

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