NJ Forest Fire Service has a new water tender

I was at a local 4H fair in western NJ over the weekend, one I attend each year. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service always has a table at this fair. So last Thursday afternoon I wondered over to the Community exhibit tent and saw the water tender in the photo above parked outside the tent, with a sign that said something like

"What in the world is this thing? Go inside and ask at the New Jersey Forest Fire booth"

I knew that this is a water tender, and I went in and asked about it. It turns out that this water tender is brand new, and has not been used at a fire yet. The chassis was obtained through the Federal Excess Property Program (FEEP), and the tanker (1,200 gallons) come from one of their older trucks. I believe that the water tender will be used by Division A of the NJFFS (northern NJ).

As I understand it, water tenders, when deployed to wildfires in NJ, are used to fill up tanks on NJFFS brush trucks or engines (200 to 250 gallons) that are working a fire. I am going to stop here, because I want to try find out more information on this water tender and how it might be used. I have some information, but have a couple of questions that I would like to get answered before writing more about this water tender. I also have some more photos for you. So stay tuned.

B-25 Mitchell - Pacific Prowler

Edited on February 1, 2017. I had to delete my original article about the B-25 Mitchell, Pacific Prowler, based on an AOPA article and video from August 2010 because the links no longer worked. Other links referenced in the same article were also dead links. Fortunately, it was fairly easy to find some other videos about the Pacific Prowler, a restored B-25 Mitchell.


Direct link to video


Direct link to video


Direct link to video

Post Fire update - August 26, 2010

I just checked the latest press release (8/26/10 at 10 AM PDT) from the Kern County CA Fire Department for this fire. The fire is at 63% containment. The latest figures from the Kern County are 1,000 acres burned. No structures, including outbuildings have been destroyed.

Post Fire, Kern County CA update

Here is a nice report from KTLA, probably from their midday news, on the Post Fire. The aerial support by helos, the DC-10 tanker, and other fixed wing air tankers continue. The latest numbers are 1,308 acres and 30 percent containment. Triple digit temperatures.

Stump Gulch Fire - 85% containment

I just checked the inciweb incident page for the Stump Gulch Fire that I wrote about yesterday. According to the inciweb stats (released 12 hours ago as I write this about 10:45 PM EDT on August 24, the fire is 85% contained.

DC-10 tanker at Post Fire in Kern County, CA

I've been watching live video stream of the Post Fire currently burning near Lebec CA. It is quite an airshow. I did not see the live footage of the DC-10 tanker, but I saw some type 1 helos, a couple of P-3's and some CAL Fire S-2T's. As I understand it, evacuations have been ordered.

Kern County Fire has a press release and a map of the fire

Here is a news report from the LA ABC affiliate. And you might want to check out wildland fire hotlist initial attack thread on the fire.

Wind driven fire in Montana

I was checking out the wildland fire hotlist forums this morning when I saw this thread about the Stump Gulch Fire. According to the wildland fire thread, the fire was first reported on Saturday August 21 west of Billings, Montana and north of I-90. I believe that the fire has burned about 6,000 acres as of Sunday evening (August 22). I found a link to reports from KULR-8 out of Billings Montana. I watched the video (from their Sunday evening broadcast?) and was struck by the reports of 40 mph winds that had driven the fire making containment efforts difficult.

More to the point for aerial wildland fire fighting is that winds grounded the helicopters that had been working the fire. I understand that grounding the helos can hinder the containment efforts of the ground crews working the fire. However, in my opinion, it is better that the helos were grounded because it was too windy for them to fly than to risk an accident.

I do hope that winds die down soon so that the helos can fly again. Of course, an added benefit to lower wind speeds is that the ground crews working the fire might find conditions more favorable for containing the fire.

I should say that I know that wind driven fires are not uncommon, that there are many such fires that happen across the U.S. and outside the U.S. that I don't write about. I just happened upon this one, along with the video from KULR 8. Winds are of concern in wildland fire fighting, both in the air and on the ground.

Here are some photos of the Stump Gulch Fire that individuals sent to KULR-8

NJ Wildfire -- Windbeam Fire

Here we again. A wildfire is burning near Ringwood NJ, in the Windbeam Mountains in rocky, inaccessible terrain. Here is a link to a video. There was a helo, delta 7, doing bucket drops in support of the crews on the ground. The fire has burned approximately 6 acres. Containment is difficult because of the rocky terrain. For more information, check out this this wildland fire hotlist thread. According to information on theNJFFS Section B-10 website, the fire is burning on Windbeam Mountain near Stonetown Rd. in Ringwood, NJ. I used this information to get this image for you from Google Earth. Ringwood is not far from the NY border (in grey on google earth).

SkyCrane history

I was perusing the wildland fire hotlist just know and saw a reference here to a story about the role of the SkyCrane in Vietnam. You may recognize one of Erickson's AirCranes in the video. The Erickson AirCrane plays an important role in aerial wildland fire fighting operations.

Here a Vietnam Vet shares his experience with the SkyCrane in Vietnam. The video is from the EAA Video Player, where you can see more videos from the 2010 EAA AirVenture.

Oak Flats Fire

The Oak Flats Fire was first reported on Friday morning, August 13 on Federal lands about 20 miles west of Grants Pass, Oregon. It is burning in a steep and rugged terrain in the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest. Air support includes seven helicopters and air tanker(s). It is last reported to have burned approximately 800 acres with 5 percent containment.

According to this video report from The Daily Courier (Monday, August 16), it has been quite an airshow. One problem has been an inversion layer that hindered air operations, especially this past Sunday. You may also want to check out this wildland fire hotlist thread on the fire.

A video update (4:30 PM PDT on August 17) from KDRV 12 may be found here.

Complicating matters, Red Flag warnings are in effect for southern Oregon through PM PDT this evening along with thunderstorms.

Wildland Fire in Boise, Idaho (July 28-29, 2010)

Among the fires that I heard about while I was in Vermont a couple of weeks ago, thanks to a good friend who kept me in the loop, was a fire that burned in Boise on July 28-29, 2010.

Finally tally from my friend:

4,875 acres
3 homes, 1 barn destroyed
0 injuries
BLM, Boise City, Ada County, Star, Eagle, Meridian, Kuna, and Canyou County units used.
Tankers used: 11,17, 20, 45, 848, 892, 893
Two helo's were used:

See this wildland fire hotlist thread for more information. Unfortunately, the links that I had to video from Boise media have expired. I can't hang around to long as a squall line is coming through and I need to get off the internet. If I should find unexpired links to media reports on this fire, I'll post them later.

Smokey the Bear turned 66 on Aug 9

Smokey the Bear turned 66 the past Monday. What I remember about Smokey the Bear is the slogan:

Only you can prevent forest fires.

That has been changed to: only you can prevent wild fires.

I think that about says it all. Over the last eighteen months since I began writing about aerial wildland firefighting, I have noticed that many fires are human caused. Of course, some fires have natural causes, such as fires caused by lightening. I don't suppose that we can do much about those.

But we can do something about human caused fires. Here are some things we can do:

campfire safety
debris burning
equipment maintenance
house safety

Some more links:
Smokey on Facebook
Smokey on Twitter

And here is a video of Eddy Arnold singing the Smokey the Bear song:

West Fire in Kern County CA destroys 33 homes (7/27/10-8/2/10)

When I was in Vermont, NPR made a brief report on Morning Edition on July 28 about a wildfire burning near Tehachapi CA with references to residences being destroyed and tankers working the fire. I happened to have a telephone conversation the next day with a friend and former airtanker pilot about another matter when I brought up this short report that I heard on NPR. He told me that this was the West Fire (CA-KRN-WEST), that residences were destroyed, and yes there were a lot of tankers and helos working this fire. Since I had heard a brief report about this fire while I was in rural Vermont, I decided to write an article on the fire for my blog.

I found the news report (from July 28, I believe) from a local ABC affiliate from a search of the internet yesterday. Then I went to the wildland fire hotlist forums to see what they had to say. The hotlist thread is a long one, and I found a link to this incident on a Kern County Fire Dept. webpage where they report that the fire was contained on August 2 (along with pictures, a map, and archived reports) The final tally:

1,658 acres
23 structures destroyed
41 outbuildings destroyed
fire started: Tuesday, July 27, 3 PM PDT
fire contained: Monday, August 2

Sunfish Pond Fire (Warren Cnty, NJ) contained

The Sunfish Pond Fire that burned 250 acres near the Appalachian Trail in Warren County, NJ was been contained. For the latest sit report on this fire, see this wildland fire hotlist thread. A report from the 1st Responder Broadcast Network with pictures of the fire may be found here. Finally, some of you might be interested in going here to see a graphic (jpeg) from Modis of the mid-atlantic region showing the location of the fire. Posting the image here is not worthwhile because the image to small to make out the fire location. However, I downloaded a copy of this high resolution image to my computer, and was able to zoom in and get good, clear detail.

TBM Avenger - Part 6 of 6 - Built in NJ

In my wanderings around the internet as I was researching the TBM Avenger for this series of articles, I happened upon some information (with pictures) about a restored TBM-3E Avenger that is currently on display at the Naval Air Station in Wildwood NJ. She is a beauty, isn't she? I thought that writing a bit about this particular TBM-3E Avenger would be a nice way to wrap up this series of articles.

What I did not know when I started out researching the TBM Avenger is that some 7,500 TBM Avengers (including the subject of this article) were manufactured in New Jersey at General Motors' Eastern Aircraft's Trenton-Ternstedt plant outside Trenton, NJ. After retiring from service with the US Navy in 1950, she saw service with the Canadian Armed Forces until 1960. She spent the rest of her flying life converted for use as an Airtanker in Canada registered as CF-MUD. For more information on the history of this TBM-Avenger, see this page from the National Park Service. Note that in this history, this TBM is referred to as flying as tanker 312 (T312).

CF-MUD saw service with three air tanker operators in Canada: Skyway,  Conair, and Forest Protection Limited (FPL) , flying as T612 and later as T12 (there is no reference here to CF-MUD flying as T312). See the entry for "BU#" 86180, "CDN REG'N" FMUD on the FPL's TBM tanker list page. If you go the FPL TBM tanker purchases, sales and losses webpage, you will see that FPL purchased FMUD from Conair in 1977, and sold her in 2001.

There is a publicly available facebook page about FPL TBM Avengers (no facebook login required) from History of TBM Avengers FPL on Facebook

Airtanker Crash on 7/31/10 in Lytton, British Columbia

I was very saddened to hear of the crash of a Convair CV580 airtanker on Saturday, July 31 while fighting a fire in Lytton, British Columbia. Both crew members were killed.

You might want check out this report with videos from CTV of Canada (dated Sunday Aug. 1, 2010). For Wildfire Today's report on the crash, go here. Wildfire Today referred to a Winnipeg Free Press article when reporting that Tim Whiting, 58 (pilot), and Brian Tilley, 36 (co-pilot) where killed in the crash.

This fatal crash comes on the heels of a nonfatal helo crash in the same area a few days prior.

I'd like to express my condolences to Tim and Brian's families and friends, and to their colleagues at Conair (the owner of the tanker). My you fly in favorable tail winds.

In closing, please join me in watching this video of Convair 580 air tankers in action in British Columbia. Perhaps you want to offering up your own thoughts and prayers for Tim and Brian as you do.

Russian wildfires

By now, I am sure that most of you know about the wild fires that have been burning in Russia for the last several days. I came across this video, thanks to my friend at the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B-10 website, who also sent me a link to the Boston Globe's Big Pictures series of photos of the Russian wildfires, go here to see these photos.

I can not find the words to describe the magnitude of these wildfires in Russia. Perhaps it is because I was away from easy access to the internet with easy access to various media reports as well as reports from folk like Bill Gabbert of Wild Fire Today. Or perhaps it the scale of these fires that leave me without words. I tried, and feeling wholly inadequate, I made some edits to this post. All I can say is unbelievable.

NJ - Wildland fires Redux

I have just returned from being on vacation in northeastern Vermont for two weeks where I had limited access to e-mail from wireless hotspots. I am going be making some posts to catch up on some of the goings on wildfire wise while I was away. I have one more post to make in my series on the TBM Avenger, look for it later today or tomorrow.

There have been a couple of larger wildland fires here in New Jersey.

1. The Great Egg Harbor Fire burned 93 acres in Atlantic County on July 27, 2010.
2. The Dan's Bridge Fire burned 677 acres in Ocean County, in or near the Bass River State Forest, on July 26, 2010.

Maps of these fires may be found on the incident history page of the NJ Incident Management Team Type II. The NJ Incident Management Team Type II has a photo gallery page for the Dan's Bridge Fire.

There is a third larger fire in NJ (the Sun Fish Pond Fire, this one is currently burning in a steep and remote area near the Appalachian Trail about three to four miles north of where Route 80 goes through the Delaware Water Gap. See the google earth image showing the approximate location of the fire (from the current large incident map -- Aug 9, 2010 -- active fire mapping program from the USDA Forest Service. The latest daily map will be found here and may not show the Sunfish Pond Fire if it is no longer active.

As of Sunday evening, August 8, it had burned about 250 acres and was 70 percent contained. The fire was reported by a hiker on Friday, Aug. 6. The NJ Forest Fire Service did burnout operations on Aug 7. One of their helos was used for bucket operations. Hiking trails in the area have been closed, and will continue to be closed today. A backpackers campsite near the origin of the wildfire was evacuated on Friday and remains closed. A recent article from the NJ Herald may be found here. In addition, you may want to see this wildlandtfire hotlist thread on the Sunfish Pond Fire.

The Press of Atlantic City has an article (August 1, 2010) on the busy fire season here in NJ, it may be found here.

TBM Avengers - part 5 - Warbird registry

Someone sent me a copy of an article from the American Aviation Historical Society Journal (AAHS) from Fall 1964 (Voume 9, #3) by William T, Larkins, Forest Fire Air Attack System (155-170). It is a wonderful article full of well researched information and facts about the development of aerial wildland firefighting as well as the type of airplanes that were being used as air tankers at the time. One of the gems of this article is a list of Air Tankers with registration and serial numbers) use by some of the US Forest Service Regions in the 1963 fire season. I don't know where you can find a copy on the internet, perhaps you can purchase a back issue from the AAHS or if you are lucky, perhaps your local library can get you a copy (perhaps for a charge).

I spent some time with this list, pulling out some registration numbers (aka bureau numbers), went to the Warbird Registry website, to give you some history and a photo, of a few of the TBM Avengers that were used during that 1963 fire season. Note that the date of last info given on the registry page for each aircraft.

• 85715, flew as tanker #E36 (later (#E27).
• 53200, flew as tanker #D6.
• 53697, flew as tanker #E46.
• 53454, flew as tanker #D13.
• 85869, flew as tanker #C3 (later #E39, #C39).
• 86280, flew as tanker #C50.

Enjoy!

TBM Avenger - Part 4 - historical footage (RAAB 1964 -1971)

I have always loved the Captain Cloud Dancer video that TL Stein has given me permission to post on Nov. 2, 2009. The video is  in memory of his Dad, Chief Thomas W. Stein, from footage that Chief Stein shot at Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base between 1964 and 1971. Please take about 12 minutes and go to my Nov. 2, 2009 article and watch the video again.

I am interested in it at this time because of the footage of TBM3 Avengers, they are painted orange.

In addition to the TBM-3 Avenger, you will also see (in no particular order) see footage of these historical air tankers:

PBY Catalina
B-17
F7F
CL-215 (first use of this type in CA).

TBM Avenger - part 3 - Firefighting

I believe that both of the TBMs shown in these two short videos were Forest Protection Limited TBM's. The forums on the War Birds Information Exchange has a good thread on the TBM Avenger with lots of good photos and history of TBM's that were used in firefighting. At the time I wrote this, the tread was six pages long, go here.

Enjoy!