The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho is mobilizing firefighters from Australia and New Zealand to assist with wildfire suppression efforts in the western United States. The two countries have been key partners with the U.S. fire community for more than 50 years but were last mobilized in 2008 when heavy fire activity was similar to this year.
The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group requested 71 fire managers and specialists. Although final details of the arrangement are still being worked out, the contingent from Australia and New Zealand is expected to arrive in Boise on August 23 for a one-day induction to learn about current fire behavior, fuels, and weather conditions. Upon completion of the orientation, they will be assigned to large fires.
The request includes 15 Division Supervisors; 15 Task Force/Strike Team Leaders; 15 Helicopter Managers; 10 Heavy Equipment Bosses; 10 Safety Officers; 4 Regional Liaison Officers; and two National Liaison Officers. Fifteen of the total are from New Zealand. Assistance from Australia and New Zealand is a good fit primarily because their fire organizations are very similar to the United States national fire organization in training requirements and structure.
A helicopter battling the Marlborough blaze crashed into the Wairau River about 11am, leaving the pilot in a stable condition in Wairau Hospital. The 47-year-old local pilot was refilling a monsoon bucket from the Wairau River at about 11am when the chopper went down, landing in shallow water. He was not seriously injured and was able to walk out of the wreckage.
Precision Helicopters chief pilot Matt Newton said the pilot was about 3m about the river when he got into trouble.
“Yeah, he just was loading the bucket out of the river and the river was flowing pretty fast and it pulled the bucket back and one of the ropes hooked around the back of his skid and he couldn’t keep up with it,” he told Checkpoint.
“It was just unfortunate but very lucky that he’s okay, that’s the main thing. We’re just grateful.”
Mr Newton said the pilot tried to untangle the rope but the strong river current dragged the bucket downstream and pulled the helicopter to the ground.
The crash scene is about 300m from the edge of the fire at Onamalutu, which has a perimeter stretching 11km.
There is a report that the helicopter was a Hughes 369HS.
The video below has a couple of still images of the helicopter. Even though the second annoying pop-up does not have a visible “X” which will remove it, hover your mouse over the box and the “X” will appear.
Another wildfire in New Zealand, west of Blenheim, was fought by 11 helicopters and 60 firefighters on the ground, according to a report by Radio New Zealand..
Note from Bill: I would be curious to hear any advice from helicopter pilots about filling a water bucket in a river with a swift current. Is there a safe way to do it? Is the length of the line an important factor in that situation? Have you ever tried to fly along with the current, or is that safe?
A helicopter drops water near personnel at fire at a New Zealand Rifle Range. Screen grab from the video.
A grenade is the suspected cause of a fire that began at a New Zealand Defence Force rifle range near West Melton on Wednesday. The military was conducting a grenade exercise when the fire started on a warm, dry day with very strong winds. In the video below, which shows helicopters dropping on the fire, the winds appear to be blowing at 20 to 25 mph, at least. In spite of the winds and the rapidly moving fire, you can see a group of 10 to 15 people engaged in some type of activity very close to the fire, which burned 50 hectares (123 acres).
On Tuesday another fire was started by military personnel near Waiouru. In that case it was Singaporean soldiers using live ammunition during a training exercise. It was contained Tuesday night after burning 350 hectares (864 acres) of brush.
A new series of four short films helps citizens of the Rocky Mountain West understand how scientists study the impact of fire on ecosystems.
The films document a National Science Foundation-funded project called Wildfire PIRE – http://wildfirepire.org – an international partnership among Montana State University, the University of Colorado, the University of Idaho, the University of Tasmania (Australia) and the University of Auckland (New Zealand) along with other universities and agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
In 2010, researchers from the U.S. first traveled to Tasmania and New Zealand to collect data on the impacts of wildfire. Using tree ring cores and columns of mud drawn from lakes, the researchers can piece together the history of fire in different landscapes.
The data from the Southern Hemisphere will also help researchers make predictions about the impacts of fire in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
David Bowman, PhD
One of the four films is titled The (un)Luck of the Draw: Understanding Bushfire in Tasmania, and discusses how the disastrous fires of 1967, referred to as the Black Tuesday Bushfires, affected this island south of the Australian mainland (map). They were the most deadly fires that Tasmania has ever experienced, leaving 62 people dead, 900 injured and over seven thousand homeless within the space of five hours. They followed a very wet spring which produced a great deal of new vegetation growth. Then on a dry, windy February day, dozens of controlled burns, or “burn offs” were fanned into life, along with some other accidental ignitions, burning 2,640 square kilometers (652,360 acres).
In the video, David Bosman, PhD, from the University of Tasmania talks about the 1967 Black Tuesday Bushfires and the fact that it could happen again. Here is a portion of what he says in the film.
…When you know that 1967 happened, and you can see the legacy of it, and you know the terror and the shock it did to this community, and then you know a lot about fire as I do, and you see it’s very, very vulnerable, it’s basically surrounded by flammable bushland.
I’m afraid, and I’m surprised at how afraid I am.
In the deck there’s a card called 1967 Or Worse, and one day the card’s going to be dealt.
The scary thing is we don’t know how often these cards are in the deck. If we get something ’67 or worse, we could burn a quarter of the island down in three hours, and that means thousands of people will die. And I’m afraid of that.
You have to wonder… is there a deck of cards for the northwest United States with one of the cards called “1910 Or Worse”?
The other three films in the series can be found HERE.
