A California National Guard Blackhawk helicopter that was working on the Scotts Fire east of Ukiah, California (map) had to make a precautionary landing Friday, September 7 when a warning light came on. It set down on private land and was unable to be repaired on the site. It was not accessible to a flat bed truck that could haul it away so the National Guard brought in a Chinook helicopter which extracted the Blackhawk. The video of the operation was shot by John Jensen of Lake County News.
And speaking of the Scotts Fire, in case you missed the excellent video shot by Tim Walton that we posted on September 10, here it is again. It shows four different models of air tankers dropping retardant on the fire, an S-2T, DC-10, BAe-146, and a MAFFS C-130.
The Scotts Fire is 100 percent contained after burning 4,618 acres.
Tim Walton sent us a link to a video that was shot on Sunday at the Scotts Fire east of Ukiah, California (map). The cast of the film includes:
One or more S-2Ts (tanker 96 was one of them)
Tanker 911, the Very Large Air Tanker, a DC-10
Tanker 40, a BAe-146
A MAFFS C-130, (possibly MAFFS #8)
Tim, who has been capturing images of fires for 30 years, shot the video. Thanks Tim!
CAL FIRE says the Scotts Fire has burned about 4,600 acres and is 15% contained. Approximately 300 homes are threatened. In Addition:
The fire continues to burn southeast towards Little Cow Mountain and east towards the Scotts Valley Road area in steep and rugged terrain. Fire crews and equipment have been successful in holding the fire south of Highway 20, west of Scotts Valley Road, and east of Cow Mountain Road. Today, a heavy commitment of aircraft, bulldozers, and fire crews will continue to build and strengthen containment lines. Efforts continue to protect BLM lands, as well as critical communications infrastructure in the Cow Mountain Road area.
10 Tanker Air Carrier’s two DC-10 Very Large Air Tankers. Photo: 10 Tanker
The two DC-10 air tankers operated by 10 Tanker Air Carrier have dropped more retardant this year than the seven to eight Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) C-130 aircraft flown by the military. The DC-10s have dropped, according to 10 Tanker, 2.408 million gallons through August 27 during 215 flights for an average of 11,200 gallons per flight.The MAFFS, according to the August 29 Government Security News, have dropped 2.153 million gallons through August 24, employing 899 flights to do so. This indicates an average of 2,394 gallons per flight for the MAFFS aircraft.
The DC-10s have a Call When Needed contract with the U.S. Forest Service and are only activated when the USFS decides to use them. This year one of them, Tanker 911, was called up (these dates are approximate) June 11 and released on June 16. It was reactivated around August 3 and the second DC-10, Tanker 910, was put on active duty on approximately August 7.
One of the eight MAFFS C-130s crashed July 1, 2012 while dropping on the White Draw fire west of Hot Springs, South Dakota, killing four crewpersons and injuring two. While the military has many C-130s, there were only eight of the second generation MAFFS2 units which can be loaded into the cargo hold of the aircraft making it possible for it to hold up to 3,000 gallons of fire retardant. And of course the crew can’t be replaced, only substituted.
The North Carolina Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing crews will return to firefighting missions in the West on Monday. They’re headed back to Idaho, nearly a month and a half after a tanker crash in South Dakota killed four of the unit’s members.
“We all feel it’s extremely important for our people to get back to this critical mission,” said Col. Roger Williams, 145th Airlift Wing Operations Group commander. “We will carry the memory of MAFFS 7 in our hearts as the wildland firefighting continues.”
Waldo Canyon Fire 06/27/12 ~ USAF photo by Staff Sgt. Stephany D. Richards
WBTV News reported that the 145th will send two aircraft and 16 airmen to Boise, where they’ll start duties on Tuesday. One aircraft is MAFFS-equipped and the other will transport equipment and personnel. MAFFS 7 was assigned to the White Draw Fire on July 1 when it crashed, killing four crew members and severely injuring two others. The Charlotte unit decided to retire the tanker’s tail number; they will operate MAFFS 8 for the upcoming assignment, and one of the California MAFFS tankers will return to its base for maintenance.
A wildfire burning in heavy timber 50 miles east of Boise continued to spread even after pilots dropped more than 100,000 gallons of retardant on it. Boise State Public Radio reported that the fire burned through retardant lines on Sunday — the Trinity Ridge Fire grew from 200 acres on Saturday to 1,300 acres Sunday; it is now at 1,800 acres.
Trinity Ridge Fire
The fire gained ground in spite of the 46 runs made by four C-130 MAFFS tankers operating out of Boise. Three SEATs also worked the fire over the weekend.
Dave Olson, incident information officer, said the fire took off Friday in sub-alpine fir and lodgepole, both prone to torching and throwing embers. He said the fire is suspected to be human-caused; firefighters found a burned utility terrain vehicle at the fire’s source. Investigators are seeking the owner of the vehicle.
Additional fire crews have arrived, and a Type 2 team has assumed command.
Yesterday, the fire burned aggressively in the mostly sub-alpine fir and lodgepole pine, with considerable torching and spotting. NWCN.com reported that fire managers say current conditions are much drier then they’d originally thought. “It’s actually drier this year than it was in 2006 and 2007,” said Olson.
The U.S. Forest Service has requested additional MAFFS-equipped C-130 airtankers, and two aircraft from the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado will soon be on duty. MAFFS tankers have dropped nearly 889,000 gallons of retardant on fires in eight states since they were activated on June 25.
Another USFS request recently prompted the Joint Training and Experimentation Center (JTEC) in Wyoming to prepare an unmanned aerial vehicle for recon missions on the Sawmill Canyon Fire. JTEC, which tests and develops unmanned vehicles, is a partner with the Wyoming National Guard, the University of Wyoming, and the Department of Defense’s Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise.
John Offe, senior electronic technician for JTEC, said the request came from the fire’s incident commander. JTEC’s capabilities include aerial reconnaissance, forward-looking infrared cameras, video, still photos, and night flying.
Offe said the JTEC team began preparing the T-16 aircraft for use on the fire, but it was contained before the JTEC aircraft was launched. Limiting conditions that affect the aircraft’s use include a requirement for restricted airspace and maintaining operations inside of their Department of Defense contracts.
“It’s not a service contract,” said Offe. “We don’t have a contract in place where we can go out and do this kind of work for them. We would love to. That’s our ultimate goal, which is to provide a system like this to somebody, be it game and fish, fire, homeland security, whoever.”
The 302nd Airlift Wing in Colorado Springs, Colo., an Air Force Reserve unit, and three Air Guard units – the145th AW in Charlotte, N.C.; the 146th AW in Channel Islands, Calif., and the 153rd AW in Cheyenne, Wyo. – each have two MAFFS-equipped C-130s able to respond to wildfires throughout the U.S.
