Two things have been on my mind recently. One is knowing that we enter into winter here in the United States where wildfire season in California and other western areas never really ends, Australia and New Zealand and other areas south of the equator are in summer. In particular, I have been thinking about Australia and wanting to say that I am hoping that perhaps this bush fire season might not be as bad as last season's horrific bush fire season. I do what I can to try to follow at least the highlights of the Australian bush fire season.
The second thing on my mind this week has been about the important role that Single Engine Air Tankers play in working wild or bush fires in support of fire fighters on the ground. SEATs are smaller air tankers with an 800 gallon tank. However, they can work from smaller air strips as long as there are reloading facilities available. In some cases, retardant and/or water-foam reloading my done through portable equipment. They are a very effective tool in the air attack arsenal, especially when they can reload near the fire.
Just this morning, I was checking out the weekly video highlight page from my friends at the NJFFS Section B10 page when I came across a video, just under six minutes with footage of ground and air attack on a scrub fire on Kangaroo Island in Australia. You will see some SEATs working the fire along with ground crews. This scrub fire started on December 4th and crews were still working the fire on December 5th. Enjoy.
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