First of Seven C-130s Ready to Fly Fires for Cal Fire

Direct link to Cal Fire video on YouTube

I have know for a few years that Cal Fire took delivery of seven C-130s that were retired from other government service. These C-130s will be converted to fly fires along with other repairs, see for example this March 2024 article on Fire Aviation. I try to monitor various pages on Facebook of air tanker contractors as well as some state and federal agencies. I noted this Aug 26th post from CAL FIRE reporting that the first of seven C-130H airtankers went into service that day, sharing the video that I embedded above from Cal Fire's YouTube page. 

I thank Mike Archer from the Wildfire News of the Day newsletter for sharing this August 26th news release from Gov. Newsome's office on the C-130H air tankers that includes the above video as well as a link to a C-130H fact sheet as well as a video (not on YouTube) of the first drop of the C-130H. The first C-130H will be based at McClellan Airtanker base.

Some facts about the C-130H:

• range loaded of 800 miles, no load of 3,000 miles
• tank capacity of 4,000 gallons of retardant
• four Allison T56-A-15 turboprops. Each turboprop produces 4,300 horsepower
• requires a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer

2024 New Jersey Wildfire Season: 30 acre wildfire in Burlington County NJ contained

When I last checked the New Jersey Forest Fire Service's Facebook page either Monday evening or Tuesday morning of this week I did not see any alert about a small wildfire burning near Coyle Field (NJ Forest Fire Service Division C air base). By the time I checked their Facebook page yesterday evening not only did I learn about this fire but I also learned the fire was contained. The NJ Forest Fire Service's wildland firefighters were aided by a substantial rainfall on Tuesday Afternoon, August 27th. Thanks to the NJ Forest Fire Service who were on the ball as usual fighting this wildfire so that we might be as safe as possible. To the best of my knowledge there were no evacuation orders issued. I have driven by this area a number of times in past years and know that wildfires always have the potential to grow in size, very thankful that this did not happen. 

2024 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Smoke Advisory for Burlington & Ocean Counties (Aug 25th)

On Sunday, August 25th the New Jersey Forest Fire Service issued a smoke advisory for Burlington and Ocean Counties due to smoke from the Tea Time Hill Fire from July 2024 in Wharton State Forest. While the fire is 100% contained, the fire is burning unburnt pockets within the boundaries of the fire as well as burning into the duff layer in the soil. Both of these conditions cause smoke. I do not normally see smoke advisories from the NJ Forest Fire Service for New Jersey wildfires and while I am posting this a day late, I am sharing this because of the concerns that smoke can present and also to acknowledge the work of New Jersey Forest Fire crews that often stems well beyond the date the fire was contained. 

Thanks to the NJ Forest Fire Service for your work in keeping us safe from wildfires.

Drone Safety Wiildfires

When drones, aka unmanned aircraft systems fly over fires aerial wildland firefighters can not fly. Please don't fly your drones over or near wildfire zones.

 

Hawaii Mars in New Home

On Aug 16th I shared that Coulson's Hawaii Mars was retired and flew to her new home at the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Victoria, British Columbia.Enjoy these photos. You may read this Facebook Post from the British Columbia Aviation Museum to learn more about the preparations for the official grand opening of the Hawaii Mars display on September 28th.

   

2024 Wildfire Season: Western Oregon (Aug 19)

Direct link to August 17th video from KEZI 9 on Youtube

Last week a friend of mine contacted me saying that they are following a couple of wildfires in Oregon, the Middle Fork and Diamond Complex Fires because they will be traveling in that area in September. As my friend is following these two wildfires and knowing that Oregon is having a bad wildfire season, I wanted to write a little about some of the wildfires in Oregon. Wanting to know a little more, I found KEZI 9 on YouTube, this station has frequent wildfire updates. I am sharing their August 17th update below and using that as jumping off to list the wildfires they are reporting on with what I hope are the correct links to inciweb with acreage and percent containment at the time of this post. This listing is only a partial list of the current wildfires burning in Oregon. 

• North Willamette Complex comprised of the Ore Fire (3,132 acres, 14% contained) and the Pyramid Fire (1,320 acres, 14% contained
• South Willamette Complex: 13,005 acres, 48% contained
• Cottage Grove Lane 1: 25,250 acres, 61% contained
• Diamond Complex: 10,984 acres, 33% contained
• Middle Fork Fire: 5,222 acres, 0% contained
• Homestead Complex: 5,832 acres, 31% contained
• Dixon Fire: 1,970 acres, 47% contained

The State of Oregon has a page with current wildfire information that may be found here, their listings will include some wildfires that are not listed on inciweb. 

Hawaii Mars Retired to British Columbia Aviation Museum

Back in late 2009 when I first started writing about aerial wildland firefighting, I was watching live stream of wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air working a large wildfire in the Los Angeles area. I was mesmorized when I first saw the Hawaii Mars working the fire. My friend Tom Janney was available over e-mail and the telephone he told me about the Hawaii Mars, one of two Martin Mars still active at the time and owned by Coulson Aviation. I watched the stream for several minutes. I recall that she went around once or twice before starting her run to drop on the wildfire. Watching her was one of the most incredible experiences, something I remember to this day almost 15 years later.

Coulson announced several months ago that the Hawaii Mars would be donated to the British Columbia Aviation Museum, the preparatory work was done ahead of schedule prepare her for the flight and to be sure she was in good shape was completed ahead of schedule, see this June 24th news release from Coulson.  Once the museum has the Hawaii Mars up and running at the end of September 2024 visitors will be able to see her up close in person. I understand that the Province of British Columbia is providing a $250,000 grant to the museum to protect and preserve the Hawaii Mars. For more information see this article from CBC Canada (with video). She departed Port Alberni on August 12th for the flight to Victoria, British Columbia near where the museum is located. Unfortunately I am not able to embed the video that I found on Coulson Facebook Page, but I can link to the video reel on Coulson's Facebook Page

As she neared the museum in Victoria, she was accompanied by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds.

Hawaii Mars and all that flew you and maintain you to help fight wildfires, thank-you for your service. Hawaii Mars, I miss you and am very happy that you have a home at the British Columbia Aviation Museum.

Smokey Bear Turned 80

Direct link to video from Smokey Bear on YouTube

Happy 80th birthday Smokey Bear! Smokey turned 80 on August 9, 2024.

I have a memory from my childhood, probably when I was under the age of 12, of seeing Smokey Bear on TV, perhaps a commercial or perhaps a cartoon? Anyway, I think the message of "only you can prevent forest fires" hit home because our family vacations when I was a child were camping along the northern New England coast in a campground in a forest. Between watching my Dad safely build a camp fire in a ring on our campsite and remembering Smokey Bear I knew that I had a role in preventing forest fires. I recall my Dad putting out the camp fire with water, stirring the ashes, dosing the fire with water and then doing it again until the ashes were cool and there was no smoke. This was during the time before the internet, now we can go to the SmokeyBear website to learn about fire safety, they have a page on camp fire safety, most of which I recall my Dad teaching me.  They also have pages on backyard debris burning as well as how to properly maintain and use equipment (including chains on vehicles) as both can lead to forest fires if not done safely. There is other good information on this sight, worth checking out, bookmarking and discussing with your family and friends. In addition, NPR has a nice report dated August 9 on the history of Smokey Bear, it is a nice read.

In keeping with the times, over twenty years the slogan was changed to "only you can prevent wildfires."

2024 Wildfire Season: Wildfires in Western Canada

 I owe a friend of mine from Canada a thank-you for giving me a gentle kick a couple of days reminding me about a bad wildfire in Jasper in Alberta. My friends were traveling in Alberta in late July, spending one night in Jasper around the time evacuation orders were issued. Thankfully, my friends got out of Jasper safely and without too much difficulty. 

The wildfire in and around Jasper started on or about July 22nd. I believe that my friends were there 2 to 4 days later. Many houses in Jasper were lost to the wildfire and residents are only recently being allowed to return. Roads in the area of the wildfire were just reopened on or about August 9th and 10th.Jasper National Park is still closed as I write this. The fire was at 80 percent containment on August 10th. There are many photos of the fire along with information on emotional and mental health,  rapid damage assessment and more at website from Parks Canada that I linked to earlier in this paragraph. The video that I have embedded below is from Sky News in late July.

Direct link to video from Sky News on YouTube

While some progress has been made on the Jasper Fire, wildfire danger remains in western Canada. An example is a warning off extreme wildfire danger in British Columbia for the weekend just past. Revised at 3:25 pm on August 12th with some information on wildfire starts over the weekend.

Direct link to video from CTV News on YouTube

British Columbia's Wildfire Service webpage may be found here and it looks like this page (with a map) is updated at least daily. According to their dashboard (dated August 12th, probably updated daily) there are 414 active wildfires of which 34 were started in the last 24 hours and 328 were started by lightning. Of the 414, five are consider a wildfire of note. A wildfire of note "are wildfires that are highly visible or post a potential threat to public safety." At least four of these were started since July 19th.

The Kamloops Fire Center in British Columbia reported 30 new wildfire starts from August 9 to 11th, most if not all of these wildfire starts can be attributed to lightning.

As for specific wildfires that were started over the weekend, CBC Canada reported on one, a wildfire that was first reported on Saturday, August 10 burning close to the village of Valemount in British Columbia, known as the Canoe Road Wildfire. An evacuation order was issued Saturday morning and later lowered to an evacuation alert. 

One Year After Wildfires in Lahaina on Maui

 I want to pause and remember the devastating wildfire that tore through Lhaina on Maui in Hawaii on August 8. 2023. I was horrified when I learned of this wildfire and the devastation it left. People affected by this wildfire are still recovering. I am glad to hear that some of the debris has been moved off the island. My heart goes out to the people of Lhaina as they continue to recover.

Direct link to video from PBS on YouTube

Wildfire Week in Review from NIFC

I came across this nice short video from the National Interagency Fire Center reviewing wildfires for the week ending August 2, 2024 with some good fire photography of the fires referred to in this video. According to the NIFC video, 28,649 wildfires had burned 4,512,854 acres the year through August 2nd. Updated year to date figures and other wildfire news may be obtained from NIFC at the above link.

Direct link to video from the National Interagency Fire Center on YouTube

Here is a list of wildfires mentioned in this video. I looked on Inciweb for links to incident information for each of these fires, I hope that the links are correct. I did double check each link, any errors are mine.

• Park Fire, California
• Hill Fire, California
• Currant Creek Fire, Colorado
• Boulder Fire, Idaho
• Gwen Fire, Idaho
• Wolf Creek Fire, Idaho
• Thunder Fire, Idaho
• Falls Fire, Oregon
• Homestead Complex, Oregon
• Badland Complex, Oregon
• Oakridge Lightning Fire, Oregon
• Telephone Fire, Oregon
• Ore Fire, Oregon
• Easy Fire, Washington
• Swawilla Fire, Washington
• Pincer Two Fire, Washington
• Clearwater Fire, Wyoming

2024 Wildfire Season: All Survived Helicopter Accident

 I do know that there are survivable aviation accidents, including those affecting the wildland firefighting community. However,  I am rarely in the position to have information to share with you on an aviation accident where all on board survived. Today I do, thanks to Bureau of Land Management Fire that I will share with you at the end of this post.  My understanding is that a Bell 407 helicopter carrying a helitack crew had to use autorotation for an emergency landing after an in-flight emergency. Kudos to the pilot. I am thankful that all onboard survived.

As soon as I saw the post from the Bureau of Land Management Fire, I knew that I had to share this with you. It is so special to be able to share about an accident where all survived. Perhaps some of the survivors are experiencing some psychological effects from surviving the accident, in my opinion that would be understandable.

Example of a Fire Camp at a Complex Incident

 I am always on the lookout for interesting photographs and videos to share with you that give us a glimpse at life working a wildfire. The Facebook video that I will share with you in this post is about life at the fire camp for the Cougar Creek Fire that has burned 18,615 acres near Ellensburg Washington. The fire was first reported on July 15th and is currently at 29 percent containment. I called this a complex incident in the title to this post because according to inciweb's Aug 2nd news report the fire is currently under the command of the Northwest Complex Incident Management Team, Jeff Dimke - Incident Commander.

I am reasonably certain that larger, more complex fire with lots of personnel and equipment assigned to the wildfire such as the Cougar Creek Fire will have a fire camp while smaller less complex fires may not have a separate fire camp. I suspect that some amenities such as the laundry facility and a store may not be available at all fire camps. There is a nice AP article dated August 28, 2021 written by Keith Ridler about fire camps that you might want to read.

While I understand and want to be clear that not all wildfire will have a fire camp like the one you see in the video, you will get an idea of the life of a wildland firefighter on more complex incidents while they are not fighting a fire. Of course, at a smaller fire the firefighters may be camping out with few if any amenties in a safe spot close to but not in or near the fire line.