Powerhouse Fire (Southern CA)

While I have not posted recently about wildfires burning in southern California, I was aware of both the White Fire which is now 100 percent contained, having burned 1,984 acres in Santa Barbara County and the Magic Fire which burned 149 acres in Valencia (LA County). I was just reading about the Powerhouse Fire on Bill Gabbert's blog Wildfire Today. I understand from Bill's latest update at 8:15AM PDT this morning, the fire has burned 1,500 acres at 15 percent containment. 

I also went to KCBS in Los Angeles where I found a very nice photo gallery:

Powerhouse Fire « CBS Los Angeles

Finally the Wildland Fire Hotlist has a thread for this fire that may be found here.

Note on Sunday, June 2: I had embedded a video from MyFoxLA reporting on the fire earlier on Friday morning which has since been taken down. I just provided an update on this fire that may found here.

Air Attack: Florida Fire (CA) Aug 2011

direct link to video from the envenomater1

I don't know about you, I've been in the mood to watch some footage of tankers and helos working a fire. Allow about 13.5 minutes for this video, footage from late August 2011 of air operations over the Florida Fire in San Bernadino County CA. You will see a couple of the Canadair Scoopers (415 CL) that CAL FIRE contracts for as well as a couple of Grumman S2-T's and a couple of helos.

Lethbridge Alberta wildfire of Nov. 27, 2011

Some of you may know that I've been trying to learn a bit more about wildland firefighting in Canada. I've been focusing recently on Alberta. So, I did what I often do and ended up on youtube where I found two videos of what I hope are the same wildfire, a wildfire that burned in Lethbridge, Alberta on Nov. 27, 2011, an extremely windy day with winds blowing up to 120 km/hour (about 75 miles per hour). A brief description of that fire may be found here and an article from The Star. I came up the first video, about 5 minutes of impressive footage. Wanting to learn a little more, I did a quick search on youtube and found the second footage, taken from the air on what I believe was the morning after the fire.


direct link to video


direct link to video

10 Tanker Air Carrier moving headquarters to Casper Wyoming

DC-10 tanker bombs Little Bear Fire

direct link to story and video from KRQE in New Mexico

direct link to video

Late last week, 10 Tanker Air Carrier announced that they will be moving their headquarters from Victorville CA to Casper Wyoming, specifically to Casper/Natrona County International Airport this summer, perhaps as early as June.  You may recall that it was only about three weeks ago that the US Forest Service announced that 10 Tanker Air Carrier received one of five intent to award contracts under the Next Generation Air Tanker Contract, go here to read my article of May 7, 2013.

One of 10 Tanker Air Carrier's two DC-10 tankers was based at Casper/Notrona County International Airport last September when she worked the Sheep Herder Fire.

For more information see:

Star Tribune, Wyoming's News Source

Press Enterprise

Fire Aviation on 10 Tanker's move to WY

Virginia Hills Fire (Alberta Canada) of 1998

Continuing with what my article on Alberta Canada's forests, (here) I thought that some of you might enjoying watching this fifteen minute video on the Virginia Hills Fire (1998) in Alberta Canada.


direct link to video

Initial Attack Revisited

Just last week I was talking to one of my new friends in Canada who used to fly fires north of the U.S. border. We were talking about flying initial attack in Canada, at least when he was flying fires. As soon as a smoke was spotted, often from a tower, the call would go out to the nearest tanker base and a group of tankers and their bird dog would be dispatched. Sometimes the fire would be brought under control before the tankers arrived, so they would be called back to base. 

So, initial attack has been very much on my mind recently. This got me thinking about post that I have written on this blog devoted to initial attack. So I went back and looked. I found my first post devoted to initial attack, posted on May 24, 2009, where I wrote about air tankers and helicopters have a crucial role to play in initial attack. A friend of mine who is an experienced tanker pilot and a S-2T pilot for CAL FIRE told me about how CAL FIRE uses tankers and helicopters in initial attack. That is, these aerial resources are deployed as soon as possible to stop the spread until the ground troops can get there. The goal being to keep the fire size small, from 2 to 10 acres. I hope you take a few moments to go and read my post of May 24, 2009. 

On October 23, 2009, I wrote about a 10-acre brush fire just north of San Diego CA (with a link to report from San Diego's CBS affiliate) that had been knocked out in under two hours. Finally the last and most recent post devoted to initial attack was a sort of reflection piece where I wrote about two hypothetical initial attack scenarios, one if California and the other in an eastern State  (go here to see my post of April 27, 2011).

At the same time that I knew that I had to go back in my blog and find my earlier initial attack posts, I came across a short report from Fox5SanDiego from last Thursday (May 16) on a small brush fire in eastern San Diego County CA on a 10-acre brush fire. Two air tankers and two helicopters were deployed to fire along with 15 engines, 3 fire crews, a dozer, and a water tender. The fire was brought under control in approximately one hour, maybe a little more. This small fire is a great example of initial attack. I don't know the timing of what resources were deployed when, but the point here is that tankers and helos did supply aerial support to help the crews on the ground get the fire under control. 

I am sure that there were several similar examples of initial attack from the recent spring wildfire season in NJ. For example in late March and early April, I heard of tankers being deployed to small wildfires in NJ while listening to the online scanner. I have no media reports of these fires to share with you. These small fires don't always end up in the news. 

So, all of you flying initial attack and all of you ground pounders working initial attack, thank-you for all you do to keep us safe. And stay safe. LACES!

Updates: Germann Rd. Fire (WI) and Grand Fire (CA)

I want to provide some updates on two wildfires that I wrote about recently.

Germann Rd. Fire (Douglas County WI): According the latest update (on May 15) on Inciweb, the fire was at 100 percent containment at 9 PM on May 15. Final acreage burned is 8,131 acres, and the likely cause of the fire was logging operations equipment.

Grand Fire (Kern and Ventura Counties CA): This fire has burned 4,358 acres and is 75 percent contained as of this morning's latest updates from Inciweb and CAL FIRE.  Hungry Valley State Park and the Piru Creek Recreation Area remain closed this morning, and roads into both parks are still closed.

Note: Inciweb links are sometimes unresponsive due to high demand, if this happens try waiting and going back at a later time.

From NIFC - weather and winds

direct link to video

I took a slight break today and then spent some time doing some more background work on the Douglas A-26's service as a tanker. Working on this series has been taking a little longer then anticipated. In the meantime, some of you know that I have gotten interested in weather from working on this blog as well as my interest in aviation. So, I leave you with this video on weather and winds affecting wildland firefighting from NIFC.

Grand Fire near Frazier Park CA

direct link to report from CBS Los Angeles with video


direct link to timelapse video on youtube

The Grand Fire, burning near Frazier Park CA (Kern and Ventura Counties) started on May 15 around 1 PM PDT. From what I understand from this thread at the wildland fire hotlist there was quite an airshow yestersterday afternoon with a few helos, five CAL FIRE S-2's (74, 78,76,81. 90) Two P-2s (T-5, T-44) and Neptune's BAe-146, T-41.

According the latest CAL FIRE incident report for the Grand Fire as of 10:53 PM PDT on May 15, the fire had burned 3,000 acres and was 10 percent contained.

There are media reports that the fire is burning near some power lines and that there are some evacuations for campgrounds in place.

Germann Rd. (Wisconsin): Fire

The largest wildfire in Wisconsin, the Germann Road Fire, has burned 9,026 acres in Gordon and Highland (Douglas County) and has destroyed seventeen homes and at least 30 outbuildings. The fire, which started near a logging area on Tues. May 14, is 90 percent contained. I understand that SEATS from WI and MN have worked the fire and possibly other aerial resources as well. Red Flag Warnings remain up in WI until 9 PM Wed. May 15.

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here with a report on the Germann Road Fire is no longer available. :-(

Some links for more information:

WI DNR press release dated May 14
WI DNR webpage on Germann Road Fire (with links for more information)
WI DNR press release dated May 15

Inciweb on Germann Road Fire
Inciweb Map of Germann Road Fire

Media Reports
WDIO short video report
WDIO report - 17 homes lost, 9026 acres burned
Star Tribune
MyFoxTwinCities with photos
Wbay

Elsewhere
Wildfiretoday on Germann Road Fire
Wildland Fire Hotlist Eastern Area - Germann Road Fire
Photos on Flikr of Germann Road Fire

History of Alberta's Forests

A couple of days ago I was writing about wildfires in Canada, saying that I was in the process learning more about wildfires in Canada. In my wonderings on the webpage for Alberta's Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, I found the video that I am embedding here (47 minutes) on the history of Alberta's Forests. Wanting to learn more about Alberta I watched the video. I thought that some of you might enjoy watching some or all of the video. The video discusses some history as well as talking about wildland firefighting and the use of airplanes and helicopters to fight fires. Enjoy!

direct link to video

P2-V cockpit footage

Shortly after I devoted this blog to aerial wildland firefighting in early 2009, I wrote a series on the Lockheed P2-V tanker. As a part of that series, a devoted an entry to some link's from Neptune Aviation's website of the photo galleries that had up at that time and a link to 16 minutes of footage from a P2-V tanker flying fires. Both links were dead, and I just updated those links. I enjoyed watching the footage again and thought that some of you might enjoy the footage as well.

direct  link to video

Learning about wildfires in Canada

I want to make a point of paying more attention to the wildfire situation in Canada. I am still learning my way around Canadian wildfire information websites, so please bear with me. I begin by looking for articles about wildfires in Canada, and I found some articles in today's Firebomber Publications, three articles concerning wildfires in New Brunswick, Canada:

Cleanup efforts underway after forest fire destroys homes in N.B. | CTV Atlantic News

Forest Fire in East St. John N.B. - News 889

New Brunswick forest fire contained, evacuees sent home | CTV News

And a fire in Alberta, Canada: Wildfire near Nordegg Alberta

A couple of week ago when I was poking around on the internet looking for wildfire information in Canada, I came across the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System website from Natural Resources Canada. You will see links for a few maps on the page you land on including fire weather, fire behavior maps, fire hotspots and an interactive map showing fire conditions. I was interested in the wildfire situation report, the one I saw was dated May 8 where 943 wildfires have burned 943 hectares or approximately 2,330 acres. This report was helpful to me as I found links to agencies in New Brunswick and Alberta. I found a link on the Alberta ERSD site reporting on the one hour evacuation notice for Nordegg Alberta.

I'll be posting more about wildfires in Canada as the season progresses and will continue to try to learn my way around various information available on the web. So stay tuned. In the meantime stay safe out there.

Springs Fire (CA) - helos, a dozer, and T-44 dropping

direct link to video - helos dipping


direct link to video - helos dropping and dozer footage


direct link to video - a dozer, helos, fire footage, lead plane with smoke, T-44 dropping ( at 7:02)

I've been busy with some other work today, so I thought you'd enjoy these videos of the Springs Fire, which according to the latest update from CAL FIRE has burned 24,451 acres with 95 percent containment. Full containment is expected on May 9.

USFS Issues Notice of Intent to Award Next Generation Airtankers

Yesterday (May 6th), the US Forest Service (USFS) announced a notice of intent

to award five companies Next Generation Airtanker Contracts. The contract is for five years with five one year options (years 6 through 10). What is known as the awards abstract, listing awards for the first five years and the five option years may be found here. Tankers under this contract must be turbine or turbojets and carry a minimum of 3,000 gallons of retardant. Those who received the awards are.:

Minden Air Corp (Minden, NV) - 1 BAe-146

Aero Air LLC (Hillsboro, OR) - 2 MD87s

Aero Flite, Inc (Kingman, AZ) - 2 Avro RJ85s

Coulson Aircrane USA (Portland OR) - 1 C130Q

10 Tanker Air Carrier, LLC (Adelanto CA) - 1 DC-10

Of the seven aircraft, only the DC-10 tanker is currently flying. The hope and expectation is that the six remaining tankers will come into service within a year. You may notice that Neptune Aviation is not on this list. Last year, the USFS issued a notice of intent for Next Generation Airtankers with Neptune Aviation being one of those receiving an intended award. When protests were made challenging these June 2012 intended awards were upheld by the U.S. Office of Government Accountability the USFS reopened the bidding. 

It is important to note that Neptune Aviation has what is known as a Legacy Air Tanker contract with the USFS for six P-2V's and one BAe-146. Minden has one P-2V under the Legacy Air Tanker contract.

Two articles on the Next Generation Airtanker Contract awards thanks to Mike Archer at Firebomber Publications from

Elko Daily Free Press announcing the Next Gen awards

Billings Gazette on Neptune Aviation's situation.

BIll Gabbert of Fire Aviation has a nice article announcing the Next Generation Airtanker awards, a summary of the events of the last year, and a chart of specifications of current (including those receiving the May 6th Next Gen Awards) and potential air tankers.  Bill's article, which is worth reading, may be found here.

Wildland Fires in CA and Tanker Tidbits: May 6

I was still a little under the weather this weekend and then catching up with some personal business today. But I have been following the wildfire situation in California. Here are some updates for you. Some of you may have been following these fires on various news outlets.

• KCRA is reporting that the California wildfire season is off to an early start, you may read the KCRA report (with a video) here.
• I wrote about the Springs Fire that is burning in Ventura County, CA on May 3. According to the CAL Fire incident page on the wildfire (no longer available), tt has burned 28,00 acres and is 80 percent contained. Evacuations orders have been lifted.
• The Panther Fire has burned 6,864 acres in Tehama County CA, and is at 60 percent containment. Three people have been injured.
• CAL FIRE activated T-910, see this article from The San Bernadino Sun, she dropped on the Gorgonio Fire. According to CAL FIRE's current incident reports the Gorgonio Fire burned 510 acres in Riverside County CA. The fire was started on May 4 and contained on May 5.
• According to the Department of Defense (article no longer available), two MAFFS from the Channel Islands were activated to help out with these California wildfires.

Revised on October 12, 2015 to remove dead links.

Springs Fire - Ventura County CA

The Springs fire, started on May 2, has burned about 10,000 acres and is at 10 percent containment. According to the incident information from CAL FIRE which I obtained at 4:30 EDT on May 3 (info is updated once or twice a day and may be different):

• damaged structures: 15 residences, 15 outbuildings, and 5 commercial properties
• 4,000 residences, 300 commercial properties and 50 outbuildings are threatened
• Evacuations in effect
• Aircraft: 6 airtankers and 8 helicopters

According to this LA Times article airtankers were grounded for a time yesterday due to high winds. Red Flag warnings are in effect today for LA County.

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded reporting on the Springs Fire is no longer available. :-(

Springs Fire on wildland fire hotlist

Springs Fire In Camarillo « Photo Galleries « CBS Los Angeles

direct link to slide show below from my foxla

A visit to NJFFS Air Attack Base at Aeroflex-Andover-pt 3 (Huey Delta 6)

These are some photos of a 1966 Bell UH-1H Huey, delta 6. According to the folk at Aeroflex-Andover, she spent six years in Vietnam. She has a new paint job, isn't she purty? She carries crew to fire, has a long line and a cargo net for supplies. She carries a 325 gallon bucket, the bucket is cinched to about 80 percent of capacity and she carries partial fuel (206 gallon capacity, carries about 180 gallons) to save weight. On average, she can make 20 drops on a single tank of gas. It does not show in one picture, but her tug is a De lorean Tug. I got to sit in her left seat to get the cockpit photos for you.

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey: stowed bambi bucket

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey: can view bucket ops in mirror

NJ Forest Fire Service "Delta 6", UH-1H Huey

De Lorean tug

De Lorean Tug

Air Tractor 602 (NJFFS Charlie 1) dropping

Hopefully I will be back later on this afternoon with more photos from my trip to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Air Attack Base at Aeroflex-Andover. In the meantime, enjoy this short video of Charlie 1 (Air Tractor 602) dropping on a marsh fire in Cape May County on April 27.


direct link to video