Reflections on upcoming fire season

Over the last two or three weeks I've been focusing on wildfire activity in NJ and elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic and New England. As things have begun to calm down, at least for the short term, here in NJ due to green up and recent rains, I am aware that wildfire season is under way elsewhere in the U.S. In other areas of the U.S., fire season is just beginning.

While my recent attentions had been focused closer to home, so to speak, where NJ had seen a decrease in the number of SEATs on contract during the spring fire season compared with prior years (go here), my thoughts were never far away from the small number of type 1(retardant capacity of at least 3,000 gallons) and type 2 tankers (retardant capacity of 1,800 to 2,999 gallons) on national contract. From upwards of 40 such tankers on contract in 2002, we now have 11 tankers.

Neptune Aviation has 9 P2-V tankers, one of which (T-10) is out of the rotation due to a cracked wing (go here for more information). Minden Air has two P-2V tankers> Neptune Aviation has one BAe-146 jet tanker (carries about 3,000 gallons of retardant). Eleven is not enough. These resources are in the process of being made available for wildland firefighting about one every other week or so since February.

I was reminded of the shortage of tankers on national contract late last week when a good friend of mine sent me an article, WILDFIRE: Federal officials brace for fire season, from the Press Enterprise. MIchael Archer referenced this same article in his Fire Publications Blog on April 27.

A day later, Michael Archer referenced a report from KABC in LA in the Fire Publications Blog discussing the upcoming wildfire season in California and the shortage of type 1 and 2 tankers on national contract.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reports on a joint statement by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture and the U.S. Dept. of Interior here

Yes, I know about the eight National Guard MAFFS C-130s that the Press Enterprise article refers to. Bill Gabbert wrote here about training of the MAFFS crews.

California has CAL FIRE's S2-Ts and helicopters. Other states have their own aerial firefighting resources.

And there are helicopters (buckets and helitankers) on federal contract as well as Single Engine Airtankers (SEATs) on federal contract under the Bureau of Land Management.

Will all these aerial resources be enough?

I will miss the Very Large Airtankers (VLATs), the two DC-10 tankers and the Martin Mars (based in British Columbia). I hope that federal governments writes exclusive-use contract for these VLATs. A month of the Martin Mars on exclusive-use contract based in CA in the early fall would help. I understand that Evergreen has detanked the 747 supertanker, would be nice to see her back on contract and available to help out.

I suppose that all we can do is wait . . .