Photo by Bill G – Page 11

Ten things to know about MAFFS, military air tankers

MAFFS 5 Peterson AFB Colorado, 9-9-2011 — File photo of a MAFFS II unit being loaded into a C-130 at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, September 9, 2011. Air Force Reserve photo.

Military C-130s can be used as surge resources when the privately owned contracted air tankers are committed to going fires or initial attack. They are transformed into air tankers when outfitted with the 3,000-gallon slip-in Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS).

Here are ten things you may not have known about MAFFS air tankers.

Operating one of the eight MAFFS aircraft costs $5,000 to $6,000 per hour. This is paid by the U.S. Forest Service or is charged to the fire.
After the crash of MAFFS 7 on the White Draw Fire near Edgemont, South Dakota in 2012, the “MAFFS 7” number was retired.
Since one of the MAFFS slip-in units was destroyed in the crash, MAFFS 9, a new number, is using what was the spare ninth unit. Now there is no spare unit.
The U.S. Forest Service supplies the ground-based marshaling and retardant loading personnel when MAFFS are activated.
Maintenance and repairs of the MAFFS slip-in units are performed by a crew of six technicians supplied by the USFS. Some of them are former Aero Union employees. The MAFFS units were made for the USFS under contracts awarded to Aero Union.
The Aero Union company, after going through bankruptcy, now consists of one person who is dealing with the remaining financial issues until the doors are closed for the last time. If any new MAFFS units are manufactured, it would likely be done by another company.
The USFS has copies of the technical and engineering documents and they believe they have the rights to have additional MAFFS 2 units manufactured if they desired, according to what we were told by a person who is very knowledgeable about the system. The bank that now owns Aero Union may or may not agree.
The retardant is pumped out of the 3,000-gallon tank by compressed air stored in two tanks at 1,200 psi. The compressed air tanks on the new MAFFS 2 units are refilled by two onboard air compressors which can fill the tanks in 15 to 20 minutes. Or, they can be refilled by one of six portable USFS air compressors on the ground (in about 14 minutes) that are moved around to air tanker bases as needed when the MAFFS aircraft are activated. The first generation MAFFS 1 units, no longer used, did not have onboard air compressors and had to be refilled on the ground. The contracts for the MAFFS 2 units specified that the air tanks had to be refilled by the onboard air compressors in no more than 30 minutes.
The military personnel working on a MAFFS aircraft typically fly for seven days, and then are relieved by a replacement crew.
The USFS has no plans to ever again use the first generation MAFFS 1 units.

MAFFS compressor — A MAFFS air tanker is being refilled with compressed air and water during training at Cheyenne, Wyoming, May 7, 2013. The compressor (on the left) is one of six owned and operated by the USFS, and is moved around to air tanker bases as needed when MAFFS are activated. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

Photos of the MAFFS aircraft taken during annual refresher training at Cheyenne, Wyoming May 7, 2013.

Vehicle fire in a warehouse

On Wednesday at noon firefighters from Hot Springs, South Dakota fought a vehicle fire inside a warehouse. They kept it from spreading into the vegetation and from what we could see from a distance they saved at least the primary shell of the warehouse. I doubt if the vehicle fared as well.

Photo by Bill G South Dakota

Photos of MAFFS training at Cheyenne

Tuesday May 7, 2013 I found myself in Cheyenne, Wyoming where two Air National Guard units were conducting their annual training and recertification for using their Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS).

The 153 Airlift Wing from Wyoming and North Carolina’s 145 Airlift Wing got together along with six lead planes for ground-based meetings and airborne exercises.

I’ll write more about the MAFFS training later, but until then, here are some photos.

MAFFS training at Cheyenne — Filling the MAFFS with water (for training drops) and compressed air. The MAFFS also have an on-board air compressor which can be used if there isn’t one provided at an air tanker base.

More information:

All of the photos were taken by Bill Gabbert and are protected by copyright.

C-130 MAFFS MAFFS 0 MAFFS 8 North Carolina Photo by Bill G Wyoming

South Dakota fire crews clear ice storm debris

The video above features two South Dakota Type 2 hand crews that are assigned in the Sioux Falls area to clear trees that fell or were damaged during a recent ice storm.

The Black Hat and the Bear Mountain crews work for the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire. According to the Bear Mountain crew’s web site:

The crew’s primary function is that of hazardous fuels reduction on state and private lands within the Black Hills. The crew is available for both in-state and out-of-state dispatch assignments, and has responded to various all risk incidents throughout the U.S. since its inception.

The photo above shows the Black Hats on May 7, 2004 walking to the fire below, which started in a structure south of Hot Springs, South Dakota and spread into the wildland. Firefighters stopped it at the top of the ridge.

Photo by Bill G South Dakota

Tanker 910 at Rapid City

Tanker 910 lands at Rapid City, April 23, 2013. — Tanker 910 lands at Rapid City

One of the DC-10’s, Tanker 910, visited Rapid City today. On the way back from scheduled maintenance in Michigan, they still have two more stops scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, before they head home to California. These times are approximate and subject to change.

Billings, Montana, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Missoula, Montana, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

These photos were taken by Bill Gabbert. Click on them to enlarge.

air tanker DC-10 Photo by Bill G Rapid City South Dakota

2012 was a record fire year in Nebraska

Cottonwood Fire Crawford NE — Cottonwood Fire, west of Crawford, NE, June 18, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert

In 2012 Nebraska had the most acres burned in wildfires since records started being kept in 1964. Approximately half a million acres were blackened by fire last year.

Nebraska acres burned wildfires — Acres burned in Nebraska wildfires, 1964-2012. From the Nebraska Forest Service.

Nebraska Photo by Bill G

Jasper Fire, 13 years later

Jasper Fire south dakota — Jasper Fire pyrocumulus, about two hours after the fire started, August 24, 2000. NPS photo by Bill Gabbert.

It has been almost 13 years since the Jasper Fire raged across 83,000 acres of the Black Hills of South Dakota. It started when a woman stopped on Highway 16 a couple of miles west of Jewel Cave National Monument to pee, she said later. Before she left, she lit a match, dropped it, and watched as it ignited a few pine needles and then started spreading across the forest floor. When I got to the area about two hours later I took the photo above of the pyrocumulus cloud over the fire.

Over the next several days the wind direction changed frequently driving the fire in different directions. It burned into the Black Hills National Forest and through Jewel Cave National Monument. But thanks to the prescribed fire program and fuel mitigation work that had been going on at Jewel Cave for a decade or so, no structures were damaged, except for an old historic outhouse which burned during mopup when the engine crew working nearby had their ~~thumbs up their asses~~ back turned.

As you can see in the article below by the Black Hills National Forest, rehab and mitigation is still going on.

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Date: April 2, 2013

Forest Service Continues Management within the Jasper Fire Area

Custer, SD – Black Hills National Forest Officials continue management actions within the Jasper and Roger’s Shack Fire areas that occurred on the Hell Canyon Ranger District west of Custer nearly 13 years ago. These two fire areas total about 90,000 acres.

Tree planting is scheduled to begin in April, to assist with reforestation of the Jasper area. Research plots established within the fire boundary have resulted in and continue to provide opportunity for valuable local research on fire effects and post-fire recovery.

Hell Canyon District Ranger, Lynn Kolund recently signed a decision which will allow for approximately 16,500 acres of fire hazard reduction in these fire areas. Over the course of about 10 years, prescribed burning will be used to reduce the fire hazard in these areas. In addition, the decision includes about 650 acres of thinning to improve the health and vigor of islands of forest stands within these areas. “Over the next several years we will work on this project to make the area more resilient for the future,” said District Ranger Lynn Kolund.

Fire officials are concerned about the fire danger this area presents as most of the dead trees have fallen over and grass has grown up around them. In some areas, the resulting fuel concentrations are 5 feet deep. According to Kolund, “Fires in these areas quickly spread like a grass fire but have the heat of a timber fire; they’re very dangerous to firefighters.”

Forest officials are focused on restoring the land, but safety is a top priority when it comes to fire danger. “There is a tremendous amount of fuel loading out there and it is a dangerous situation” said Gwen Lipp, Fire Management Officer for the Hell Canyon Ranger District. “When we get a wildfire in this area, it will be extremely difficult to control. This project will reduce the long term fire hazard and also improve the ability for firefighters to move quickly to put out a fire in the future.”

In addition to the prescribed burning, Forest officials will be thinning vegetation and planting new ponderosa pine trees. Kolund said, “We are doing our job as a land management agency. Restoration of this area of the Forest will ensure its availability for future generations.”

For more information on the Hell Canyon Maintenance Burn project, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/fs-usda-pop.php/?project=22242

(end of USFS article)

Jasper Fire Photo by Bill G South Dakota

Prescribed fire along the Fall River

Nearly every year the city of Hot Springs, South Dakota asks the Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department to conduct a prescribed fire along the Fall River. The burning reduces the woody vegetation which could clog the flood control channel where the river passes through the city. Before it was channelized and the Cold Brook Dam was constructed upstream, the city suffered frequent floods.

These photos were taken by Bill Gabbert, Saturday, March 30, 2013.

The photo above shows a section of the river just as the burning began. Below is the same area on hour or two after the fire passed through.

Even though there had been a light rain the night before and the relative humidity was in the mid-50s, the cattails burned very well.

I shot all of these photos at 1/500th second, and was pleased with the way it captured the flames, such as in the image above where a ball of fire can be seen about 20 feet above the main flame front. I used two cameras, both Canon T3i’s. The lenses were also Canon, 100-400mm and 17-85mm lens.

The flames impinged on the wood deck of the pedestrian bridge, but apparently there was no damage. More photos are below.
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Photo by Bill G prescribed fire South Dakota

Nebraska legislature considers bill to enhance wildfire response

SEAT at Hot Springs — Single engine air tanker #466 at Hot Springs, SD, March 14, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert

UPDATE at 5:34 p.m. MT, April 5, 2013:

State Senator Jerry Johnson said the Governor is in favor of the bill.

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(Originally published on March 25, 2013)

The Nebraska legislature voted 36 to 0 on Monday to advance a bill to the second round of debate that would appropriate $1.7 million to improve the response to wildfires. LB634 directs that contracted single engine air tankers be stationed at Valentine and Chadron, one at each location, during the fire season. It would also provide for the thinning of forests, make more wildfire training available to volunteer firefighters, and develop a Type 3 incident management team.

The air tankers would be available through mutual aid agreements for fires that occur across the states lines in South Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Before the vote on Monday the bill was amended, adding the following:

Since an emergency exists, this act takes effect when passed and approved according to law.

air tanker legislation Nebraska Photo by Bill G

An afternoon at Wind Cave

The March winds were blowing almost like a Santa Ana in Wind Cave National Park Sunday afternoon. When I was taking these photos I had to brace myself by leaning against something or by getting down on one knee to minimize camera movement. At one point the wind drove a few little hard kernels of snow, “corn snow” into the crevices of my coat and the camera, but that only lasted for a few seconds.

Photo by Bill G South Dakota Wind Cave NP

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