I have blogged about aerial wildland firefighting since 2009. I am not a firefighter and am not a pilot, just an interested bystander who wants to learn more and share what I learn here. Join me here as I blog on the aircraft and the pilots who fight wildland fires from the air in support of crews on the ground. I also blog on concerns affecting fire crews on the ground as well as other aviation and meteorology issues. Learn what it takes to do jobs that are staffed by the best of the best.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011
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).
My husband is a wildland firefighter in Washington State and has been for 15+ years. He is trying to find a contractor so he can come and work on the Fires in Texas this year. Any chance you can point us in the right direction with people to contact? any help you can offer would be wonderful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHello Archer WA,
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion for your husband, and for others who are wildland firefighters looking for contractors, etc. would be to go the wildland fire website. They have a wildland fire jobs page with links for positions wanted.
In addition, your husband might want to become a member of the "hotlist forums" and make a post to the general discussion area of the forums. There are some very helpful folk on that forum who might have some suggestions for your husband.
I wish I could do more, but not being a wildland firefighter, the best that I can do is to steer your husband in the direction of the wildland fire website. I expect that there might be other sources that I do not know about.
I wish your husband luck. :-)
Tyler