Juneteenth

I honor Juneteenth, June 19, and the significance of this holiday.

Direct link to video from Ted Ed on Youtube

2026 California Wildfire Season: PG&E Helicopters to support aerial firefighting

Direct link to June 16th KPIX video on YouTube

I was pleased to see the video that I shared above where I learned that Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) will be used during the 2026 wildfire season in the Bay Area in aerial operations to fight wildfires. Helicopters such as PG&E's helicopter fleet are an important addition to support the wildland firefighters on the ground in the Bay Area of California. 

2025 New Jersey Wildfire Season

I saw a post from the NJ Forest Fire Service on Facebook the other day reporting on the 2025 Wildfire Season in New Jersey that I am embedding below. To summarize, there were 1,322 wildfires in 2025 in New Jersey that burned 27,229 acres. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service 2025 Wildfire Report may be found here.

 

Friday Fun: New Cal Fire C-130

 Cal Fire has a new C-130 has joined their airtanker aersonal and is or was stationed at Ramona in southern California, see this article from the County News Center for more information. While I always like to see additional airtankers deployed anywhere in the United States and elsewhere, I have family and friends in southern California so I am especially happy to know that Cal Fire's new C-130 is currently deployed at Ramona. See this page for more information about Cal Fire's C-130s.

The video that I embed below shows footage of the new C-130 and other aircraft fighting a wildfire near the Sorrento fire that is now 100 percent contained at 90 acres.

 

Direct link to June 8th video from San Diego Slackers on YouTube

 

More on Fire Towers in New Jersey

I am a fan of fire towers in New Jersey because the spotters in the towers help to spot and report wildfires, sometimes when they are still small. On a section of the Appalachian Trail in Warren County NJ where I used to hike when I had better knees, I would pass the Catfish Fire Tower (go here to see a photo). Knowing the good work that fire tower observers in New Jersey do, I was very pleased to see this report on NJ fire towers from WHYY. 

Direct link to June 5th video from WHYY on Youtube.

2026 Wildfire Season: Aeroflite Tankers on Contract in Washington

 

As we are in to spring and early summer wildfire season, I do try to follow, as I can, where Airtankers are currently based. I saw this post from AeroFlite Aerial Firefighting on Facebook a week ago. I believe but am not 100 percent certain that at least one of the airtankers they are referring to are Dash 8-400 AT airtankers

I am glad to see that these two AeroFlite airankers were based in Washington week ago, I hope they are still there.

Direct link to May 26th Facebook post from AeroFlite Aerial Firefighting on Facebook

Friday Fun: A Look Inside a Yukon Airtanker

 In the video that I am sharing below about the Yukon Airtanker, according to CBC News North, the supervisor of the airtanker program mentioned at 35 seconds is not Chris Mullen, it is Chris Boland.

Direct link to May 28th video from CBC News North on YouTube

Florida Air Operations Preparing for Hurricane Season

Having been to Florida once on vacation and having friends and family who spend time in Florida I try to pay attention to the hurricane season in Florida. I know that air operations can play an important role in tracking many storm events, including hurricanes. I saw this video from Vertical Plus on how Florida is preparing their air operations for the upcoming hurricane season and am sharing the video today.

 

Direct link to May 26th video from Vertical Plus on YouTube

Update on 2020 Oregon Wildfires

 In 2020 I made at least three posts about wildfires in Oregon, one on October 20th, a second post on September 9th, and a third post on November 30th. When I saw the May 31st post from Wildfire Today on Facebook that I am embedding below about wildfire mitigation plans from the Bonneville Power Administration on Facebook and went back to review what I wrote in 2020, I wanted to share the post with you, which I am embedding here. I see from the post from Wildfire Today that the Bonneville Power Administration has rewritten their fire mitigation plan. These were devastating fires and I am hopeful that the Bonneville Power Administration will make some progress in mitigating the effects of these wildfires.

2026 Wildfires: Sandy Fire (Ventura County CA) contained

The Sandy Fire is at 100 percent containment as of May 27th at 2,183 acres. I don't always post when a wildfire is contained, however I found a video of ground and aerial operations at the Sandy Fire dated May 22nd that I wanted to share, at that time the fire was at 61 percent containment.