Wildfires in north western US - August 31st

Thanks again to Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day for the links to these articles, you may subscribe to Mike's six day a week e-mail newsletter here.

NPR report: Western Wildfires Outpace Weary Firefighting Crews (August 30, 2015)

Link to NPR story with audio

Oregon, Idaho and western Montana

• Summary of Oregon Wildfires (Oregon Live, August30th with photos)
• Summary of Idaho Wildfires (Spokesman-Review, August 30th)
• There was an August 30th report from the Independent Record saying the wildfires in Western Montana were helped by rain. The link is no longer available.

Revised on October 12, 2015 to removed dead links.

More on the wildfires out west

I am going on an outing in a couple of hours, a day trip for some recreation. My thoughts and prayers continue for all those affected by the wildfires in the western portion of the U.S. Before going, I haven't yet had breakfast, I want to make this post.

There are a lot of wildland firefighters from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The military is helping. Crews from many States, including New Jersey are helping. Our friends in Canada have sent some air tankers to help us out. Our friends from Canada have (again) sent us some air tankers to help. Stay safe everyone and thanks for all you are doing.

The National Interagency Fire Center issued a Press Release on August 20th (download here) about mobilizing wildland firefighters from Australia and New Zealand. I understand that they have arrived and are working in Washington and Oregon.

Here are three articles focusing on the wildfires that I learned about through Mike Archers Wildfire News of the Day, a six-day a week e-mail newsletter that you may subscribe to here.

America is at War with Fire (U.S. Military helping to fight wildfires), Warisboring on August 25th
39 photos of Washington Wildfires from the Yakima Herald with links to more articles)
Christian Science Monitor (article and video, August 22nd) on the crews fighting the wildfires (including prisoners, military and crews from other countries)

Thank-you wildland firefighters

I am sharing (perhaps a rerun?) one of my favorite tribute videos to wildland firefighters and smokejumpers. Stunning images and great music. With some pictures of now historic tankers. Words can't express my gratitude (and prayers) to all the wildland firefighters (on the ground and in the air) who are working very hard to keep us safe. And we have wildland firefighter friends from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand helping us out here in America.

Stay safe.


direct link to video

Wildland firefighters who died near Twsip WA identified

On August 20th I wrote about the tragic deaths of three wildland firefighters near Twsip WA on Aug 19th. Those who lost their lives are:

• Tom Zbszewski, age 20
• Andrew Zajac. age 26
• Richard Wheeler, age 31

Daniel Lyon (age 25) was critically injured and is being cared for at Seattle hospital.

You may read a August 20th report from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center about the identities of the deceased and the injured here. The Seattle Times wrote about the Zbszewski, Zajac, and Wheeler (as well as an update on Lyons injuries) in this August 20th article with photos (updated on August 23rd).

direct link to video

Rest in Peace. Your sacrifice won't be forgotten, prayers for your families, friends and colleagues. Heal well Daniel Lyon, prayers for your recovery.

New Jersey Forest Fire Service will send more firefighters out west

An August 21st press release from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection came to my attention last night. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service will be sending a second crew of 20 wildland firefighters to help fight the wildfires out west. They will be leaving this weekend or early next week. Here is an excerpt from the August 21st NJDEP press release:

Responding to the growing need for support to fight Western wildfires, the Christie Administration is sending an additional 20 members of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and New Jersey State Forestry Services to assist in the battling of wildfires that are raging across parts of the Northwest, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced today. … “Our commitment to assist in this national effort to battle these dangerous fires is unwavering,” Commissioner Martin said. “We are proud to be sending our dedicated and brave crews from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service to pitch in and help protect others.”

I ended my original post by sharing a video report from NBC10 in Philadelphia reporting on the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) crew that was working the Morrell Complex of wildfires in Montana in the Lolo National Forest near Seeley Lake, 516 acres had burned and the fire was at 10 percent containment when I wrote the article. Unforunately, as sometimes happens, the video link has expired. The report also mentioned the three NJFFS trucks working fires in Washington and an update (Augustl 21st about 5 PM) on the wildfires burning in out west.

Edited and revised on October 20, 2015

NJ Forest Fire Service Crew in Montana fighting wildfires

In an article I wrote on August 18th on the wildfires burning in the western USA, I mentioned that the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) had deployed 32 wildland firefighters to help battle the wildfires burning out west with trucks going to Oregon and a crew of NJFFS wildland firefighters going to Idaho, Montana, or Oregon. See this August 16th article from the NJ Herald for more information.

I knew that the NJFFS crew was in Montana and that they are already working on their second fire. It wasn't until today that I had some specific information to share. That is, a crew of 20 NJFFS wildland firefighters is currently assigned to the Morrell Complex of wildland fires that has burned 476 acres in the Lolo National Forest, the fire is at 15 percent containment. The most current information on this fire may be found at the Morrell Complex Inciweb page. I am going to quote some information that I found on the Morrell Complex Inciweb page at the time that I am writing this article (4:05 PM on August 21st), the information is current as of August 21st at 10:45 AM:

Summary: Another very active fire day today (Friday) which is expected to have similar conditions as yesterday, but leaning towards slightly cooler temperatures and stronger winds causing a RED FLAG WARNING to be in effect. Winds will be shifting from southwest to northeast direction with gusts nearing 45 mph. A cold front will be passing through with a 20% chance of wetting rain in the evening. The fire is now estimated to be 476 acres. The percent contained changed from 25% to 15% yesterday due to the fire growing beyond established firelines on the eastern flanks. Over 120 members of the public joined together at a community meeting last night to hear the latest strategies and meet local fire management officials. 

Resources: Heavy equipment continues to be the primary resource on hand for the fire. This includes one 20-person handcrew from New Jersey, 3 excavators, 1 feller-buncher, 3 water tenders, 4 engines, 1 dozer, 5 “skidgines” and a helicopter with bucket for line work and initial attack. A total of 107 firefighters, including overhead, are currently working on the fire. Resource orders have been placed for additional hand crews, miscellaneous overhead and safety officers. (emphasis added)

I am very proud to have a crew of wildland firefighters helping fight the Morrell Complex of wildfires. I am sure that Montana appreciates the help.

As I was preparing to write this blog post, I found this August 20th article on NJ dot com, a nice article about one of the NJFFS wildland firefighters, Sean Riley.  Riley is working on the crew in Montana. Riley is the head of the Newfield NJ Fire Department. Riley explains in the article about some of the testing that is involved in being a wildland firefighter and volunteering for out-of-state duty (Riley put his name on list of NJFFS wildland firefighters willing to do out-of-state duty in 2015) in this excerpt from the August 20th article:

"You take a three-mile pack test where you have 45 pounds on your back. You have to cover [that distance] in 45 minutes," Riley said. The pack test is just one of several rounds of qualifications firefighters must go through before they're cleared to take on jobs of this magnitude. 

When the U.S. Forest Service puts out the call for volunteers, firefighters have two days to respond. If they accept, the firefighters are sent to the scene for a two-week assignment. 

"You know when you sign up that it's going to be last-minute," said Riley. "You don't know when it'll happen. It's a matter of when the fires reach a certain point."

I have heard that the NJFFS trucks (three type 4 engines and their crew) may be in Oregon, I'm not quite sure where.

Updated on August 22, 2015: According to this August 21st press release from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the three NJFFS trucks that arrived in the west on August 17th were assigned to work wildland fires in Washington and are still there. This same press release also mentions that the New Jersey Forest Fire Service is sending an additional 20 wildland fires out west to help fight wildfires out west.

New Jersey Forest Fire Service Wildland Firefighters in state and working out of state, you rock and I am proud of you. Stay safe.

Three wildland firefighters die near Twisp WA

It is with a heavy heart that I offer my condolences to the families, friends, colleagues, and all who loved the three wildland firefighters that died yesterday fighting a wildfire near Twsip, Washington. I understand the four firefighters are injured, at least one critically, prayers for the injured and their families. See this Seattle Times article (last updated August 20th at 7AM PDT) for more information on this tragedy, a map of the area, some fire photos, and coverage of other wildfires.

RIP

NASA Satellite Image (Aug 16th) of Fires in Pacific Northwest USA

I thought that some of you might be interested in a NASA Satellite image of the fires in the Pacific Northwest collected by the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua Satellite on August 16, 2015. The red spots on the image are very warm surface temperatures or hot spots. For more information about this image and the fires in the image go to this NASA webpage. Photo credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team.

Obtained on Aug. 19, 2015 from http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/fires-in-the-pacific-northwest
Photo Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

update (Aig 18th) on western USA wildfires

I continue to try to follow the wildfire activity in the western USA. I say try because there is a lot going on out west. Before I go any further, I understand that all (or most?) US Interagency wildland firefighters are currently deployed on wildfires, see Bill Gabberts Aug 18th article - Forest Service Chief Sends His Moses Letter - for more information. Fortunately the military is helping out. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is mobilizing active duty military personnel to assist with wildland firefighting, see this August 18th press release from NIFC for more information, excerpts below. 

For the first time since 2006, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho is mobilizing active duty military personnel to serve as firefighters to assist with wildfire suppression efforts. Currently, approximately 95 large wildfires are burning about 1.1 million acres in Oregon, Washington,Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada, and Colorado. The National Preparedness Level is currently at 5, the highest level, indicating a high level of wildfire activity and a high level of commitment of available wildfire suppression assets, such as firefighters, aircraft, and engines. Weather and fuel conditions are predicted to continue to be conducive to wildfire ignitions and spread for the next several weeks. 

The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) at NIFC requested the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide 200 active duty military personnel to assist with firefighting efforts. The DOD has approved the request and identified the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, Army located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington to provide the active duty military personnel. The Soldiers will be organized into ten crews of 20 persons each, all of which will be sent to the same wildfire, which is in the process of being identified. 

“We are committed to continuing to do everything we can to provide the firefighters, aircraft, engines, and other wildfire suppression assets that Incident Commanders need to protect lives, property,and valuable natural and cultural resources to suppress the most challenging wildfires we’ve experienced in several years,” said Aitor Bidaburu, Chair of NMAC. “The U.S. military has been a key partner in wildland firefighting for decades and we greatly appreciate their willingness to provide us with Soldiers to serve as firefighters as well as C-130s equipped with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) to serve as large air tankers to help with wildfire suppression efforts.”

Along the same lines as above, here is an article from the AirForce Times reporting on NIFC's mobilization of military troops to help fight wildfires, and Bill Gabbert writes about this mobilization in one of his August 17th articles on Wildfire Today.

Washington, Oregon, and California have activated State National Guard units to help fight wildfires in their state:

• California National Guard activated (August 18th)
• Washington National Guard activated recently
• The Oregon National Guard was activated earlier this month to help fight wildfires (go here), I think but am not sure that they are still activated and fighting wildfires in Oregon  (see this August 17th report from the Oregon Department of Forestry on the Eldorado Fire)
• An article from the NationalGuard reports on National Guard units helping in California, Oregon, and Washington earlier this month. Most of the article focuses on California, but they discuss the Guard's work in Oregon, Washington, and Nevada at the end of the article.

I understand the the NJ Forest Fire Service has sent a crew of 32 NJFFS firefighters and a three trucks out west, for more information see the article from the NJ Herald.

Daniel Berlant, CAL FIRE's Chief of Public Information has issued today's update on the fires (12,000 firefighters fighting 18 wildfires) burning in California that may be found here.

I close by sharing a video report (August 14th) with some footage of a helo and a CL-415 working the Chelan Complex in Washington. I'll get to that in a moment. As of the time I write this article, the Chelan Complex of wildfires has burned 63,425 acres and is at 30 percent containment. Here is the latest inci web update for the Chelan Complex (may have different information than what is here). Note that at the time that I am accessing inci web the site is running slow. You might also be interested in this August 18th report from ABC News and Bill Gabbert's reports on the Chelan Complex of fires. The video is from GoLakeChelan.com and the embed code is disabled, but I hope that you watch this video: Reach Complex fires in the Lake Chelan Valley August 14, 2015 from GoLakeChelan.com on Vimeo. I had to fuss a bit with some settings for one of my Firefox browser add-ons before the video played in Firefox. But it worked without incident in Chrome and Safari.

update (Aug 17th) on western USA wildfires

August 17th at 4:40 PM EDT

Thanks to Mike Archers "Wildfire News of the Day" for August 17th (go here to subscribe, it is worth it!) , here are a couple of more links for you:

NBC News (August 17th) report on western wildfires (with video)
CAL Fire Chief of Public Information, Daniel Berlant August 17th update on 19 active California wildfires

Finally Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation wrote a nice report on August 16th: USFS has 34 large air tankers currently activated. He has a list of the active air tankers that you might want to check out. This may be summarized as follows: 14 air tankers on multi-year exclusive use contracts, nine on call when needed contracts, six on loan from Canada (thank-you friends from Canada), 4 MAFFs C-130s, and one CL-415 "scooper" from Aero-Flite on federal contract. Gabbert goes on to explain that the US Forest Service does not count the CL-415 as an air tanker. They call the CL-415 a "scooper", which it is. Gabbert counts the CL-415 when arriving at 34 air tankers. What ever you call the CL-415, what is important is that she is out there in the air helping the crews on the ground.

August 17th at 11:55 AM EDT
I don't quite know what to say about the extent and impact of the many wildfires that are burning in the western USA. Fortunately there are places that you can turn to if you desire more specific coverage of these fires.

See for example:

Bill Gabbert's Wildfire Today Blog and his Fire Aviation Blog. Bill does an excellant job covering current wildfires in the USA and elsewhere. If you are checking these sites on or about August 17, 2015, just scroll down a bit and you'll find his reports on the current wildfires. If you are coming here later, check out the links on the side of his webpage and you should find a listing of his archives by month.

Mike Arcrhers e-mail newsletter (every day except Sunday) "Wildfire News of the Day" chock full of media and other reports on current wildfire news. You may subscribe to Wildfire News of the Day here.

Inciweb (US) national incidents (on the upper right hand corner, you can search by state or for a particular incident) Many or most wildfires on national forest and/or national park lands are listed here.

National Geographic Coordination Center (portal for coordination centers for each area in the country)

CAL FIRE incident page

Many local news outlets (broadcast and other online media outlets) cover wildfires in their area. If you are familiar with the area where the fire is burning you may know media outlets that you can turn to. Or if you are not familiar with the area, I either do an internet search by the name of the fire. Or perhaps a search for news outlets near the fire.

I do feel compeled to write something today, hopefully focusing on something from a national point of view. To that end:

CNN report (last updated Sunday Aug 16th) on the western wildfires with a video

CBS This Morning - August 17th report and video

To all of wildland firefighting friends on the ground and in the air and those who support you, stay safe. Thanks to all from around the US and out of country who are sending wildland firefighters and equipment to help fight the wildland fires. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you who live in or near areas affected by the wildfires, stay safe.

update (Aug 15th) on western wildfires

Pacific Northwest
I wrote a brief reflection on August 13th on the large number of wildfires burning out west. I offer a couple of videos on the soda fire (Idaho) that has burned 265,411 acres (15% containment) as I write this. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today provided an update on the fires burning in Washington and Oregon in an August 14th post with a second post on the same day reporting on five fires near Chelan Washington  Bill continues to do his usual good job on reporting on the current wildfires on Wildfire Today, to numerous to list here.

Soda Fire (Idaho)


direct link to video


direct link to video (Aug 12 report on KBOI)

California Wildfires 
Daniel Berland, CAL FIRE Public Information Officer offers this August 14th update on wildfires currently burning in California. According to CBS Los Angeles, two CL-415 super scoopers have arrived in southern California

National News
Finally, here is an August 13th report from MSNBC (with photos) focusing on the National Interagency Fire Center raising the preparedness level to 5, meaning that additional military resources can be deployed to help firefighters.

Reflections on wildfires in western US

While I was writing about unmanned aircraft systems yesterday, I want to assure my readers that I am aware of the large number of wildfires and burning in the very dry western portions of the USA, e.g the Soda fire that has burned 200,000 acres in Idaho and Washington (latest inciweb, Wildfire Today on Soda Fire), and here is an August 12th report from Daniel Berlant, Chief of Public Information for CAL FIRE on the fires burning in California.

Just this morning I heard a report on the extreme fire danger and the large number of wildfires out west on National Public Radio, unfortunately I was not able to locate the report for you. Fortunately, Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today wrote an article (August 12th): "National wildfire preparedness level raised to highest level in two years" covering some of the same points that I heard on National Public Radio this morning.

For all of you who are fighting these fires on the ground and in the air, as well as all of you who are working in various positions supporting the firefighters, stay safe. Thank-you for all you are doing.

UAS (drone) danger near airports as well as wildfires (and more)

Embed code to video referenced below is no longer available, updated on August 1, 2018. Here is the  direct link to a good video on CBSNews (August 2, Face the Nation) on the dangers of drones

I have written a few times recently about the danger the danger caused by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drone incursions over wildfires, see for example my article of July 20th

I don’t know about your area, but I know that airline crews have reported seeing UAS on approach to Newark-Liberty International Airport (NJ), and crews have spotted UAS near JFK airport (Queens). I was inspired to write this article because of what I thought is a great editorial ("Crackdowns needed on drones airports - editorial") written by the Star Ledger Editorial board On August 10, 2015. I saw the editorial in the August 10th edition of The Star Ledger that arrives in my driveway each morning. I'd like to thank them for making me aware of the CBS News interview with Captain Sullenburger that I embedded above.

I hope that you take a few moments to read this editorial. While the editorial board was speaking about UAS (drone) incursions at NY-NJ airports, I think that they are speaking to drone incursions at other airports, including perhaps yours. The Star Ledger Editorial Board urge that lawmakers and the FAA take action:

We're not sure anyone's listening, but the reckless behavior of a few drone operators should have made lawmakers and the FAA shake a leg by now.

The Star Ledger Editorial Board end their editorial by saying that

But until the guys with their tech toys are brought under control, we can expect more close calls and near misses. Until Washington acts, the technology is outpacing the rules that should govern its use.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post wrote an article on the August 10th Washington Post called Rogue drones a browning nuisance across the U.S. He reports on problems caused by several rogue drone (UAS) operators, including but not limited to drone (UAS) incursions over wildfires in California and drones flying “dangerously close to airports.” This article is worth reading, it isn’t long and includes a short video on rogue drone (UAS) operations. Whitlock provides a little background on the lack of UAS (drone) regulations for recreational users:

In general, drone misadventures are happening in a regulatory vacuum. The FAA has banned most commercial drone flights until it can finalize new safety rules — a step that will take at least another year.

But people who fly drones for fun aren’t regulated. Under a law passed in 2012 that was designed in part to protect model-airplane enthusiasts, the FAA cannot impose new restrictions on recreational drone owners. As a result, they are not required to obtain licenses, register their aircraft or undergo training. . . . 

To protect regular air traffic, the FAA has issued guidelines requiring that consumer drones stay at least five miles away from airports and below an altitude of 400 feet. 

Those standards are widely flouted, however; in the past month alone, airline pilots have reported close calls with drones near airports in New York, Charlotte, Minneapolis and Phoenix.

Please, if you have a hobby UAS (drone), stay away from wildfires, stay away from airports, and fly under 400 ft AGL. Fly your UAS safely, you may read more the FAA standards for unmanned aircraft systems here.

Tribute to Fallen Wildland Firefighters

What wildland firefighters do, whether they be on the ground or in the air, is very dangerous. Every year, wildland firefighters die in the line of duty. The video that I share below, from "GuardianofWhatsRight" is a tribute to fallen wildland firefighters that he uploaded to youtube in January 2015. As I write this, we mourn the loss of David Ruhal and Mike Hallenbeck (both articles posted on or about August 9, 2015 by Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today)

Starting at about 2min 14 seconds into the video there are a few images showing the aftermath of fallen wildland firefighters (markers, a burned over area, scenes from a memorial service, photo of aircraft wreckage, etc.) The images end at about 2 min 46 seconds. I believe that these images are an important part of this tribute to fallen wildland firefighters.



direct link to video on youtubehttps://youtu.be/GpfWNO-y-8w

NASA Modis Satellite image of CA fires

I was looking around on one of my local ABC affliates when I came across a report  from ABC Good Morning America showing a NASA Modis Satellite image of the California Wildfires from space. It is a great still from the Modis Satellite. Here is the article from ABC Good Morning America on the satellite image, the red outlines are areas where the fire was burning.

Obtained on August 7, 2015 from http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/smoke-still-rising-from-californias-fires, image dated August 6th.

Wildfire in Southampton NJ (25 acres)

A shout out and thank-you to my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page for giving me a heads up about the Hall Swamp Fire that burned 25 acres near the border of Southampton and Pemberton Townships (Burlington County). Section B3 from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service worked the fire. I believe that the fire was reported early morning on August 5th. By late in the day on the 5th, the fire was contained. At the time that I write this, the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page has a report on this fire on their front page in a section called Current NJ Wildfire Activity about 1/3rd of the way down the page. I don't quite know how long my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page will keep the report on thier front page, depending on when you are accessing this article, the report may no longer be on their front page.

I have not seen any media reports about this fire, which doesn't mean there are none. It just means that I have not yet been able to find any media reports. If I do find some media reports on this fire, I'll update this article.

More on Rocky Fire (CA)

The Rocky Fire (CA) has burned 68,300 acres in Lake, Yoyo and Colusa Counties in California and as at 20 percent containment. At least 39 residences have been destroyed and mandatory evacuations were still in place this morning.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today continues to cover the Rocky Fire, he made this report on August 5th.
Here are some media links on the fire:

Rueters (UK) video report on the Rocky Hill Fire (August 3rd)
Fox2Now report on Rocky Hill Fire (August 5th)
KCRA on Rocky Fire (August 5th)

Here are some videos.


direct link to video


direct link to video


direct link to video

Wildfire activity out west

I would be remiss to not mention the wildfire activity on the west coast that I have been hearing about on some of the major news outlets. I am a little short on time at the moment, but I'd like to refer you to Bill Gabbert's Wildfire Today where he has been writing about the Rocky Fire in California that has burned in excess of 60,000 acres, the Wolverine Fire in Washington (burned about 15,760 acres per Bill's article), and several wildfires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in northern California started by lightning (19,000 acres per Bill's article). Bill always does a great job on covering wildfires on Wildfire Today so I encourage you to check out his blog as I do on a regular basis.

What’s coming up and blog cleaning

I have been writing this blog on aerial wild land firefighting and related issues for the last seven years. It is inevitable that links will be outdated and videos are removed from youtube or networks and other media outlets remove the videos and I edit the article. In a couple of cases, I have to delete the article because the article no longer makes sense.  Just the other day, I spent a couple of hours doing these edits and realized that it is time to write current updates of some articles. For example, I wrote an article a few years ago on smoke jumper history and because most of the links are outdated, I had to severely scale down the article. It is still there, but I am going to work on an update. Finally I had to delete another article on smokejumper history with an outdated link to a video from 1949 on smokejumping, I am going to look around for that video and if I find it I'll include it in an upcoming article on smokejumper history.

I will also take a look at the article that I have written on retardant and foam to see if the links still work and ascertain if it is time for updated articles. 

Then there are a series of articles on Aero Union and Evergreen in early 2009. Many of you will recall that the USFS terminated it’s contract with Aero Union four years ago with Aero Union going out of business a few months later (see my articles of July 30, 2011, August 17, 2011, and January 18, 2012) I am leaving the articles from 2009 on Aero Union’s Lockheed P-3 tankers up because of their important contribution to aerial wild land firefighting, but have added an annotation about the termination of the contract in 2011.

In early 2009, Evergreen had a 747 tanker capable of dropping 20,000 gallons of retardant. My understanding is that the 747 tanker is no longer configured for aerial firefighting. I did have to delete one article on the 747 tanker because the article no long made sense after deleting outdated links. But I will leave the remaining articles up with an annotation that according to Bill Gabbert's May 2nd (2014) article on Fire Aviation it seems that Evergreen has declared bankruptcy.

Over the next few weeks I will be working on revisions to articles on smoke jumper history and retardant and foam. I will be looking at other articles that may need revising over the next few months. I will continue to make edits on older articles and as applicable as applicable including but along the lines of the annotations that I just made to articles on Aero Union’s P-3’s and the Evergreen 747 tanker.