Texas wildfire update #1

This video was posted on the Abilene Reporter News website this morning. The video shows footage of the Wildcat Fire near Grape Creek. The Albilene Reporter News has a nice page of fire photos.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today has been doing a good job reporting on the Texas Wildfires. He reports here on the C-130 MAFFS working the fire with three videos of the C-130s that you may want to check out. Another article, this one on a fire threatening McDonald Observatory may be found here.

Firefighter death

Finally Bill reports on some sad news here, on the death of a Firefighter Jaquez who suffered third degree burns while fighting one of the Texas wildfires a few days ago. Another article on Mr. Jaquez's death may be found here. My deep condolences to Mr. Jaquez's family, friends, colleagues, and all who loved him.

Aero Union

There were a couple of stories yesterday on the Reporter News website about the grounding of the Aero Union P-3 fleet, the first one may be found here. In a second article early yesterday evening (4/19/11), they report on discussions between Aero Union and Texas Governor Perry's Office to "try to resolve the issue on the (Texas) State level." To the best of my knowledge, the three P-3s were still on the ground in Abilene.

Updated on August 3, 2015: The US Forest Service terminated its contract with Aero-Union for their Lockheed P-3's, going out of business a month later. (see my articles of July 30, 2011, August 17, 2011, and January 18, 2012).