Area Commander Jim Loach, on the left, briefs Rep. Jeff Flake, Sen. John McCain, and Tom Harbour, Director of Fire and Aviation for the USFS. June 18, 2011. Photo by USFS.
Managers of the Wallow fire spent parts of Saturday and Monday briefing dignitaries that visited the fire area.
Sen. John McCain, Thomas Tidwell (Chief of the Forest Service), and Tom Harbour (Director of Fire and Aviation, USFS). June 18, 2011. Photo by USFS.Norm Walker, one of the four Incident Commanders on the Wallow fire, briefs Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar on June 20, 2011. Photo: US Army Pfc Danielle J. Sargent AZNG
Neptune Aviation's Tanker 10, a P2V large air tanker. Photo credit: Neptune Aviation
The Washington post pointed out in an article on Sunday that the 18 large air tankers on contract in the U.S. have an average age of about 50 years and are overdue for replacement.
The article hits on most of the same issues that we have written about at Wildfire Today on two occasions:
When two large air tankers crashed in 2002, killing five crew members, the U.S. Forest Service culled the fleet of 44 large air tankers, weeding out the most vulnerable, and the ones most susceptible to metal fatigue and other issues that compromised safety when flying in mountainous terrain, in and out of canyons. Today there are only about 18 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts, a 60% reduction from 2002. And this year the USFS is refusing to offer exclusive use contracts for Very Large Air Tankers, the DC-10 and 747.
In the nine years since the 2002 crashes and reduction in force of the air tanker fleet, the USFS has commissioned multiple reports about how to modernize the fleet. Deadlines have passed with little or no action taking place that would actually replace the aircraft.
Two private air tanker operators, Neptune and Menden, are both engaged in projects to retrofit 4-engine jet airliners, BAe-146 aircraft that are much younger than the the 50-year old air tankers now flying. Neither of them have passed muster with the Interagency Air Tanker board and have yet to drop on a fire.
Neptune Aviation's new air tanker, a BAe 146-200 conversion, being tested at Missoula airport in July, 2010. Photo by Bill Moss
The USFS is saying that later this year they will ask Congress for the funding to either buy new air tankers, or pay someone to retrofit used aircraft.
…Tom Harbour, national fire director for the Forest Service, said the secretary of agriculture will take a funding plan to Congress in August.
“We have good data on effectiveness and use,” Harbour said. “There’s always more data that we can collect to make a more compelling case.”
But why has it taken nine years since the 2002 crashes?
“Identifying the right air tankers and processing them is a very complex issue,” said Jeff Jahnke, Colorado’s state forester and president of the National Association of State Foresters, who said the criticism is unfair. The Forest Service is made up of “top performers, very science-focused, one of the leading incident managers in the world,” when it comes to wildfires, he said.
A source in the agency who asked not to be identified, fearing the loss of his job, said the Forest Service is trying to decide between two approaches: buying air tankers outright from aircraft manufacturers or requesting bids from aviation companies that rebuild airplanes, mostly from a Defense Department “bone yard” where aging military aircraft are placed after a specified number of flights.
The service could buy planes from several companies for about $2.5 billion, but it would be responsible for providing maintenance crews and pilots, experts said. The service could also request bids for large contracts with specifications to provide newer-model planes.
Manufacturers say they are prepared to provide whatever the government wants. Bombardier, a Canadian company, has repeatedly sought to sell its CL-415, built in 1991, to the United States. The turbo-engine plane can swoop to a water source, scoop 1,600 gallons and deliver it to a fire.
Bombardier has sold 155 planes worldwide, including 69 of the CL-415s to Italy, Spain, Greece and France for about $35 million each, said Derek Gilmour, vice president of sales and administration.
Congressman Adam Schiff, left, speaks to residents during a Station Fire update meeting at the Altadena Public Library Thursday, April 28, 2011. Joining him on the panel, from left to right, were Stephen Gaty, Assistant Director of the Government Accountability Office, Natural Resources and Environment Team, Tom Harbor, Director of Fire and Aviation, U.S. Forest Service and Marty Dumpis, Deputy Forest Supervisor, Angeles National Forest.(SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini)
Updated, May 18, 2011
The Whittier Daily News has an interesting account of yesterday’s forum hosted by Congressman Adam Schiff about the management of the 2009 Station fire that burned 160,000 acres near Los Angeles.
ALTADENA – Foothill residents left a community forum on the Station Fire with few questions answered and little confidence on Thursday, after Forest Service officials gave scant details as to how properties will be protected in the event of another devastating wildland blaze.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, moderated Thursday’s forum on the mismanagement of the Station Fire, the largest wildland fire in Los Angeles County history.
Forest Service officials, as well a representative from the Congressional Government Accountability Office, tried to allay fears of a possible repeat of the 250-square-mile blaze that killed two Los Angeles County Firefighters and destroyed dozens of homes.
Homeowners, many of whom watched their houses burn in the Station Fire, weren’t convinced that much has changed.
“We are not safer,” said Rod Driscoll, whose Vogel Flats home was destroyed in the Station Fire. “We are going to be in the same situation this year in the area to the east that didn’t burn in the Station Fire.”
Forest Service officials were also criticized for not providing straight answers to the residents at the forum.
“I feel like some of these generalizations that you are giving, aren’t answering the questions these people are addressing,” said Sandra Thomas, Altadena Town councilwoman.
Tom Harbour, Forest Service director of aviation and fire management, spoke about the improved communications between agencies and the commitment to protecting property and lives in the event of another fire.
Harbour’s words fell short of comforting the audience.
“I got out of there with my car, my clothes on my back and my cat,” said Duncan Baird, retired battalion chief from the Pasadena Fire Department, who lost his Tujunga Canyon home in the blaze.
The Forest Service launched a feasibility study to examine the use of night-time helicopter water drops. The tactic was prohibited by the Forest Service during the Station Fire despite the proven effectiveness of Los Angeles County Fire helicopters in fighting fires from the air after dark, Harbour told the audience at the Altadena Library on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service entered into an agreement with Los Angeles County Fire to conduct nighttime air operations upon request, Harbour said.
“We are in the night flying business right now with the helicopters being supplied by Los Angeles County,” Harbour said.
But limitations in the equipment could curb the volume of night flights.
Harbour told the audience that operating the helicopters on consecutive shifts with separate flight crews could “wear out” the helicopters.
Harbour’s comments set off groans and one man yelled: “In other words nothing has changed.”
“We are going to wear out our aircraft,” said Laura Olhasso, in a rare moment of sarcasm during the meeting. “That’s less than confidence-inspiring.”
Olhasso, a councilwoman in La Canada-Flintridge, harshly criticized federal officials for not releasing information from the investigation into the Station Fire some 20 months after the disaster struck.
“I am dismayed by the pace of the inquiry,” she said.
The GAO agreed to investigate the management of the Station Fire in 2010. After seven months of inquiry, Stephen Gaty, the agency’s assistant director of natural resources, declined to comment on the initial findings from the federal probe and told the audience the report won’t be released until late 2011.
While Harbour promised the residents that the Forest Service would throw all available resources at a fire, he noted that air operations are “expensive.”
Those comments also elicited groans from the crowd, some of whom openly wondered how much a lack of funds played into the grounding of aircraft during the early stages of the Station Fire.
“If those early decisions were made because of money, I ask you not to make that decision again,” said John Grancich, of Millard Canyon.
Written by Brian Charles
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UPDATE May 3, 2011
The Montrose Patch also wrote an article about the forum. Here is an excerpt:
Duncan Baird, a homeowner in the Big Tujunga Canyon area, where several dozen homes were lost, echoed the complaint of many that the Forest Service did not try to protect the area in the 48 hours after the blaze started on Thursday August 27, 2009. The Big Tujunga Canyon residents lost their homes on Saturday.
“There was a period of time all day Thursday and all day Friday when some serious mitigation could have been done with an aerial assault to pre-treat fuels in our canyon,” Baird said. “As it turned out there was absolutely zero work done in the canyon before the fire took our homes and everything we owned. ”
Baird and others questioned whether the Forest Service calculated whether saving their property would be worth the cost of deploying additional fire resources.
Harbour defended the agency’s response as being an”aggressive, assertive initial attack.”
He said cost factors are not considered when trying to put out a fire.
“We are not constrained by cost…we want to get the fire out. There is, hopefully, no question about that,” Harbour said.
UPDATE May 18, 2011:
Found another version of what happened at the forum, this time an article by Paul Pringle of the LA Times.
Employees of the U. S. Forest Service, both presently employed and retired, testified yesterday during a four-hour hearing in Pasadena, California about the response of the agency during the first 24 hours of the Station fire, which in August and September of 2009 burned 160,000 acres near Los Angeles and killed two LA County Fire Department firefighters. The hearing was called by members of Congress to try to determine the reasons for the reported lack of aggressive suppression efforts, especially the use of aerial resources, while the fire was still small on the first night and the second day.
The list of witnesses testifying included:
Will Spyrison, a Division Chief on the Angeles National Forest and the Incident Commander of the Station fire during the first night; now retired.
Don Feser, former Fire Management Officer for the ANF; he retired a couple of years ago.
Tom Harbour, Director of Fire and Aviation Management for the USFS in Washington.
William Derr, retired Special Agent for the USFS.
Jody Noiron, Forest Supervisor, ANF
Casey Judd, Federal Wildland Fire Service Association
Here are some excerpts from an article in the LA Times written by Paul Pringle:
Will Spyrison, the then-division chief who oversaw the operation on the second morning, said before a standing-room-only, often boisterous audience Tuesday that he made several calls for the air tankers between about 12:30 and 3:25 a.m. and was never told that they would not arrive until two hours after he needed them.
Station fire. Photo: Inciweb
“I knew if I didn’t have the aircraft at 7 o’clock in the morning, there’s a very short window of time … between 7 and 9 a.m. was that window of opportunity to make a difference,” said Spyrison, whose account had not been made public before.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D- Burbank), who organized the panel, asked Spyrison if a 7 a.m. arrival of the tankers “could have made a critical difference in whether this fire got out of control.”
“Yes,” Spyrison said, “if it was possible to have them there at 7 o’clock in the morning.”
He then retreated a bit, saying, “You could play the what-if game” and “it’s hard to say” that the tankers would have helped knocked down the blaze before the sun heated the hillsides.
But he later said, “I went back and tried to confirm that aircraft because I knew the sense of urgency…. I needed it there by 7 to be able to, you know, make an effective attack.”
Rep. Howard P. McKeon (R- Santa Clarita) asked, “Did you ever receive an answer back?”
“No,” Spyrison said. “I asked several times for confirmation.”
Spyrison also said he did not know that a separate Martin Mars tanker had been in the air the evening before and was available to dump more than 6,000 gallons of water and gel on the fire but was turned away and directed to unload at another location.
“It would have helped,” he said.
Two former Forest Service officials said that the agency let Spyrison down.
“There was a void in overall command and control,” said former Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Don Feser.
[…]
To loud applause, L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich suggested that the county Fire Department become the lead agency for fires in the Angeles National Forest.
[…]
[Tom] Harbour and other Forest Service officials repeatedly denied that cost concerns prevented them from turning immediately to state and local agencies for crews and equipment, including aircraft, to bolster the assault on the fire. The Times reported Monday that an internal review conducted for the U.S. Agriculture Department, which runs the Forest Service, found that financial worries delayed the arrival of “critical resources” at the fire.
Below is a video report about the hearing from from KABC:
The LA Times has some excellent photos taken on day 2 of the Station fire between 8:02 a.m. and 8:39 a.m. showing the fire first jumping across the Angeles Crest Highway. After that, the fire became very difficult to suppress.
More about the hearing:
Photo gallery
Washington Post Glendale News-Press
LAWeekly: “Largest Fire in L.A. History Could Have Fizzled Sooner, If Not For Mystery Slacker”
Whittier Daily News
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized7 Comments on Dignitaries visit the Wallow fire 
