New Jersey State Forest Service: Airsupport

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) uses both helicopters and single engine air tankers (SEAT) in their air operations. I found good webpage from NJFFS Division A Section 2 with a page with some wonderful photographs of some of the aircraft that they use. Go to their main page and click on air operations in the menu at the top of the page. As an aside, I normally would provide a direct link to the specific webpage, however, I don't think that would work in this case.

A word on geography, the NJFFS breaks the state down into three divisions (A, B, and C), go here to see a map of these three divisions. Each division is divided into sections.

They have some really cool photos of firetowers in NJ, along with several photo sections (photo sections 1 through 3, featured photos, on the road, the scardo era, etc) and photos of the DC-10 air tanker. You can spend awhile on the site checking out all their neat photos.

Back to the aircraft. The NJFFS has a fleet of five state operated helicopters (rotor winged) in service including two UH-1H Huey rotorcraft with 300 gallon bambi buckets. What is a bambi bucket and does it do? Check out this you tube video of one of the NJFFS helicopters and bucket. The bucket suspended from the belly of the helicopter in the video is known as a bambi bucket (also refered to as a bucket). By the way, the video appears to be a demo drop. Helicopters with buckets such as the two NJFFS Hueys play an important role in wildland fire fighting.

In addition to the helicopters, there are two state operated fixed wing aircraft in service both Cessnas and a piper cub that can be put in service if needed.

During the spring fire season (March to May), the NJFFS contracts with Downstown Aero for nine AgCat biplanes (eight are their own, and one is leased from Merv Lewis of New York State). In addition to the AgCat biplanes, Downstown will be providing an Airtractor. These aircraft are what are known as single engine airtankers (SEATS). Both types of SEATS are used to drop retardant or foam on wildland fires.

For more information about Downstown Aero, see this article written in September 1999. Note the Dromader referred to in this article has been sold.

I will be writing about the AgCats in my next post followed by a post (or two about the Airtractors. So, stay tuned . . .

Note: For a complete listing of the equipment, including fixed wing and rotor aircraft used by the NJFFS, go here.

March 14, 2012, The last I checked the article about Downstown Aero that I linked to was no longer available on the web.