Sunday, December 05, 2010

Israel Wildfires - update #3



Progress is being made in fighting the wildfires in Israel!

Thanks to a tanker pilot friend who sent me a link to the Israel National News with a short article about the arrival of tanker 979 along with the video that I embedded here. Another tanker pilot friend sent me this link from Firehouse News reporting that tanker 979 has arrived in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that tanker 979 made two runs today on the 12,000+ acre wildfire in Israel, dubbed as the Carmel Fire. I'd like to thank another friend who sent me a different article from the Jerusalem Post.

MSNBC has an article (from the Associated Press) on their website reporting that a senior fire official in Israel, Boaz Rakia, is saying that "the blaze under control, though it was unclear when it would be extinguished."

You will also want to see Wildfire Today where Bill Gabbert has reported early today about the progress made today, including a link to the same (or a similar)article from the Jerusalem Post that I linked to earlier. He is also reporting that because of today's progress, U.S. wildland fire fighting crews and resources are being held over in Boise until Monday when the situation will be reassessed.

Updated Dec. 5, 5:25 PM EST: I was just talking about Tanker 979 with someone on another forum who pointed out to me that Tanker 979 arrived in Israel around the time that progress was being made on the fire. I agreed with him that the locals seemed to be impressed by her performance. Tanker 979 will be hanging around for awhile as an insurance policy.

2 comments:

RamblingChief said...

It is always a grand sight to see Tanker 979 show up at your local airport, or on your fire. I've been lucky enough to see both.

It is an impressive platform that carries lots of media and political interest around with it... wherever it goes. It has it's uses, strengths, limitations, and liabilities though.

We had Tanker 979 on the ground at San Bernardino Airtanker Base for most of the 2010 fire season after it dropped on the Crown Fire in LA County earlier in the year.

I'm glad to see it was effective and a great help in suppressing the fires on Mt. Carmel.

Random Ramblings NJ said...

Rambling Chief,

A belated thank-you for your post about Tanker 979. Your observations about Tanker 979 as someone who has seen her in action and on ground are very much appreciated. Thank-you!

Tyler

P.S. I wanted to edit my earlier comment to make a correction, I could not, so I deleted it.