Air tankers circa 2010

Recently I have been writing some reflection pieces with embedded videos of some tankers and helicopters that I learned of over ten years ago when I decided to devote this blog to aerial wildland firefighting and related concerns. My latest post in this series was on December 16th when I wrote the first of what I hope to be at least a couple of posts on CAL FIRE's S2-T tanker. I hope to return to writing about the S2-T tanker either the end of this week or early next week.

Today I am sharing a video I first learned about nine years ago by Alan Simmons. Alan shoots videos of structure fires,wildland fires, EMS, tankers, etc. You may find his videos for sale on FirestormvideosHD. I learned of Alan's videos nine years ago when I came upon highlights from his longer 80 minute 2010 video on Firefighting Air Tankers. I do have this DVD, but due to technical issues I have not been able to watch it recently. As I have recently been writing about some of the tankers that Alan showcases in his eight minute highlight video from (2010) Firefighting Air Tankers, I thought that I would share this with you.

Enjoy.



Direct link to Alan Simmon's eight minute video, Firefighting Air Tankers

2017 Wildfire Season: Old Cajon Year in Review

From San Bernadino Co. (CA) FFs, an 18 minute video highlighting their 2017 wildfire season.


Direct link to video on Youtube from San Bernadino Co. (CA) FFs

Helos from Camp Pendleton (2014): San Diego County CA

Enjoy this video of helicopters from Camp Pendleton in southern California working a 2014 wildfire in San Diego County, California. This is for you Matt, may you rest in peace and continue to fly in favorable tail winds.


Direct link to video

MAFFS 4 (2013) drop run from take-off to landing

Enjoy this video of MAFFS 4 from the 146th Air Wing of the Air National Guard (Port Hueneme, California). In this video, shot by Col. Bryan Allen, MAFFS 4 is working the 2013 Springs Fire near Newbury Park, CA. Col. Allen takes us along on a drop run from take-off to landing with radio transmissions.

You will hear the crew talking to each us during the flight as well as other radio transmissions relating to the drop run. Among the highlights of the video are the crew going through various check lists, setting up a show-me run where the lead plane shows them the location of the planned drop with smoke, the drop run itself, and the flight back to base. You will hear vocal alerts from the C-130: altitude, landing gear, and terrain warnings. I think but am not sure that the crew had the landing gear down during the drop run. Remember that the MAFFS and other tankers fly at a low altitude when making their drops, hence the altitude and terrain warnings.

Allow just over 15 minutes to watch the video.



Direct link to Col. Allen's video on Youtube

Thomas Fire (Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties, CA) grew over the weekend

Direct link to video from CBS San Fran Cisco Bay Area

While the Lilac Fire (San Diego County CA) is now at 80 percent containment having burned 4,100 acres the Thomas Fire, now in its eighth day, in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties California has grown over the weekend to 230,500 acres (15 percent containment).



Smoke images posted about 2 PM PDT on December 12th


Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today on the Thomas Fire: December 10th update and photos of east side.

Media reports
Washington Post (Dec 10th) nice article with photos and videos
Washington Post on Santa Ana Winds with graphics (great information with great graphics)
CNN (Dec. 11th) with a photo gallery
CBS2 Los Angeles photo gallery
Los Angeles Daily News article, discussion on containment

Southern California Wildfires - Lilac Fire (San Diego County) December 2017

Update, December 9, 2017 7:30 AM EST

According to the CAL FIRE Lalic Fire Incident Page, last updated at 9:38 PM PDT the Lilac Fire remains at 4,100 acres burned and as at 15 percent containment. Depending on when you access this post, what you see on the CAL Fire Incident Page for the Lilac Fire may be different.

Update, December 8, 2017 7:30 PM EST

The Lilac Fire remains at 4,100 acres burned and zero containment per the CAL FIRE Lalic Fire Incident Page; as I write this there have been no updates on acreage burned or containment since this morning. The good news is that winds in the San Diego County and the Lilac Fire area were not as bad today. I believe that some air tankers and helicopters made some drops on the Lilac Fire, but I have no confirmation of that.  A smaller fire, known as the Sweetwater Fire has burned approximately eight acres near Alpine in the southern part of San Diego County in the Cleveland National Forest.

The bad news is that the Santa Ana winds will pick up in intensity over the weekend, especially Saturday night into Sunday. Hopefully diminishing early next week. Here is a video report from the NWS San Diego dated December 8, 2017.

Direct Link to Video from NWS San Diego

In my wonderings today, I found another nice interactive map, this one from ABC10 San Diego. You may click on icons in the map for more information - videos, pictures, evacuation centers, etc. The direct link to the ABC10 report and video may be found here.




December 8th, 11:20 AM EST

I have loved ones in and around San Diego County, they are ok! So, I am going to focus on the Lilac Fire that was first reported on December 7th about 11:30 AM near Bonsall, California (San Diego County). As I write this about 11 AM EST), the fire has burned 4,100 acres and is burning out of control. At least 65 structures have been destroyed, and evacuations remain in place, and there are road closures in the area. There have been four civilian injuries, burns and smoke inhalation. For more current information about the fire you might want to check out the twitter feed of the CAL FIRE San Diego Unit or the CAL FIRE San Diego/San Diego Fire Authority Facebook page.

The Lilac Fire as well as other wildfires burning in Southern California have been driving by Santa Ana Winds. Red Flag Warnings are in place for much of Southern California through Sunday evening. The graphic that I am embedding below is from the NWS San Diego, posted about 7:40 AM PST. As you can see, Santa Ana Winds are forecast to continue through Sunday, December 10th.



I found the map of the area burned by the Lilac Fire that I am embedding below from a December 8th report by NBC San Diego. I accessed the map at about 8:10 AM PST on December 8th. Go here to view a larger map and be sure to check the box saying evacuations to see more detail on the areas that were under voluntary or mandatory evacuations at the time the map was published.



If you are interesting in current news of the Lilac Fire you might want to check out NBC San Diego, or CBS8 San Diego.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today wrote about the Lilac Fire on December 7th and again on December 8th.

Some current media reports as of 11 AM EDT.

• CBS8 report (December 8th) with live stream
• December 8th report by NBC San Diego
• Photo Gallery from San Diego Tribune

Southern California Wildfires - December 2017

Like many of you, I have been following the news of yet another round of Santa-Ana wind driven wildfires over the last 36 hours, this time in southern California. The largest of these, and the one I first heard about yesterday morning is the Thomas Fire in Ventura County California. As I write this the Thomas Fire has burned 65,000 acres, is not contained, 12,000 structures are threatened, and evacuations are in place.

Video from NBC Los Angeles' News Helicopter over wildfires (December 5th) compared to before the wildfires


direct link to video from NBC 4 in Los Angeles

Short aerial footage from Guardian News

Direct link to video on Youtube from Guardian News

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today has been covering these southern California wildfires, both on Wildfire Today and Fire Aviation:

• Skirball Fire closes I405 in Los Angeles
• Thomas Fire burns to ocean
• Southern California wildfires from space
• California temporarily reconstitutes aerial fleets
• MAFFS and 747 tanker activated

A sampling of media reports:

• Washington Post - photo essay (December 6th, limited free views)
• New York Times - photo essay (December 6th, limited free views)
• KSBY - central California Air Attack assisting in southern California wildfires
• NBC Bay Area - Bay area crews assisting in southern California wildfires
• NBC 4 Los Angeles - Wind driven wildfires
• NBC 4 Los Angeles - Traffic woes, evacuations, etc. (video, photos, and map)

Footage from wildfire near Lake Elsinore CA

I came across 45 minutes of footage from KTLA 5 in southern California late last week. The footage, which I think was streamed live on KTLA 5's facebook page was shows footage of the Wildomar Fire, shot on October 26, 2017. The wildfire was burning in the mountains of southwest Riverside County California near Lake Elsinore and Wildomar.

I know that 45 minutes of footage might be a little long for some of you. I don't watch as much livestream footage of wildfires as I used to.

Some highlights of aerial operations:

• At about 13 minutes there is a couple of minutes of close-up footage of T-910 (DC-10) circling near the fire.
• T-910 starts the drop run at about 21 minutes 20 seconds.
• Footage of a Sikorsky Sky Crane over the fire.
• Two drops from a Sikorsky Sky Crane (#716) at about 25 minutes 40 seconds and 37 minutes 20 seconds.
• Close-up of a lead plane at about 36 minutes 25 seconds

South Metro Colorada Firefighters working wildfire in California

Enjoy this video from the South Metro Colorado Fire and Rescue documenting the deployment of four of their wildland firefighters to California in the Summer of 2017. They retreated to their safe zone where some of this footage is shot. There is some nice footage of aircraft working the fire.


Direct link to video from South Metro Fire and Rescue

Northern California Wildfires - update for Oct 16th

According to the CAL FIRE Statewide Summary for Monday, October 16th there are 14 large wildfires burning in California accounting for over 213,000 acres burned. An estimated 5,700 structures have been destroyed. At the time I post this, 41 people have died. Some evacuation orders in northern California have been lifted and other evacuation orders are being reevaluated. A driver of private water tender working the Nuns Fire died in a vehicle rollover on Oakville Grade in Napa County. CBS Bay Area reported on the death of the driver in this vehicle rollover in an October 16th report

I compiled the following information on wildfires burning in northern California from the California Statewide Fire Summary (CAL FIRE PIO twitter) for Monday, October 16, 2017. As I transcribed the data from the CAL FIRE PIO's twitter post, any errors in the figures are mine.

Central LNU Complex, In unified command with Santa Rosa Fire Department and Sonoma County Sheriff, CAL FIRE Incident Management Team assigned. 23 civilian fatalities

• Tubs Fire (Sonoma and Napa Counties) 36,390 acres, 70% contained, significant number of structures destroyed
• Pocket Fire (Sonoma County) 11,889 acres, 40% contained
• Nuns Fire  (Sonoma County) 48,624 acres, 50% contained
• Oakmont Fire (Sonoma County) 875 acres, 15% contained

Southern LNU Complex, CAL FIRE Incident Management Team assigned

• Atlas Fire (Napa and Solano Counties) 51,064 acres, 60% contained, 6 civilian fatalities, significant number of structures destroyed

Mendocino-Lake Complex, CAL FIRE Incident Management Team assigned

• Redwood Valley (Mendocino County) 35,000 acres, 50% contained, 8 civilian fatalities, significant number of structures destroyed
• Sulphur Fire (Lake County) 2,207 acres, 85% contained

Wind Complex, CAL FIRE Incident Management Team assigned

• Cascade Fire (Yuba County) 9,989 acres, 96% contained, 4 civilian casualties, significant number of structures destroyed
• Lobo Fire (Nevada County) 821 acres, 97% contained, multiple structures destroyed
• LaPorte Fire (Butte County) 6,151 acres, 95% contained

For current information from CAL FIRE on wildfires burning in California, see the CAL FIRE PIO twitter account.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today continues to report on the wildfires currently burning in California.  You will want to see his two recent updates on the northern California wildfires written on Saturday, October 14th and Monday, October 16th.

Northern California Wildfires - Update October 14th

Saturday evening (October 14th) update on California Wildfires

Latest death toll on the #CAwildfires has sadly grown to 38.
*Sonoma County – 20
*Mendocino County – 8
*Napa County – 6
*Yuba County – 4

— CAL FIRE PIO (@CALFIRE_PIO) October 14, 2017

More sad news! As damage assessment continues, latest estimates that 5,700 structures have been destroyed by the wildfires burning across CA pic.twitter.com/f3djAANIQg

— CAL FIRE PIO (@CALFIRE_PIO) October 13, 2017

(October 14th about 3 PM PDT)


(October 14th about 2 PM PDT)



The latest statewide summary of all the wildfires burning in California may be found at this CAL FIRE website. They start with this summary (from Statewide Summary for Saturday, October 14th):

Gusty winds increased early this morning forcing new evacuations and a sparking a new large wildfire in Lake County. Currently more than 10,000 firefighters are battling 16 large wildfires that in total have burned over 214,000 acres. Approximately 100,000 people have been evacuated from the fires. These fires have been extremely destructive with 5,700 structures estimated to have been destroyed.

The Weather Channel has a short video update on the northern California Wildfires (October 14th, about 6PM EDT) that may be found here, along with a story and a rather large photo gallery of about 300 pictures. 

Two San Francisco media outlets that I have been checking periodically:

• CBS San Francisco
• NBC Bay Area

Red Flag Warnings in Northern CA this weekend (0ct 13 - 15)

If you are arriving at this post after October 15th, the video is still worth watching so you can see an example of how NWS Weather Forecast Offices work to warn those in their forecast area of life threatening weather conditions.

Temporary Air Control Tower at McClellan AAB

Thanks to Mike Archer for his daily Wildfire News of the Day e-mail where I learned in his WNOTD e-mail yesterday, October 11th) about a temporary Air Control Tower that is in operation at McClellan Air Attack base. Ordinarily McClellan has no tower and the pilots talk to each other as they are arriving, taxiing on the ground, and then departing. However, with twelve Airtankers working the various northern California wildfires out of McClellan, the air and ground space was a little busy so CAL FIRE called Tower Tech for help. Learn about Tower Tech in this report with video from CBS News Sacramento. Unfortunately, I am unable to get the embed code provided by CBS News Sacramento to work, so I hope that you take about three minutes to go and watch the video.

Titus Gall, CEO of Tower Tech spoke with CBS Sacramento:

'The traffic becomes a little bit too complicated,' said Titus Gall, President and CEO of Tower Tech, Inc. . . . 

'Everything that uses this airport is now talking to these guys,' Gall said, referring to the two-man team running the traffic control. 

Typically, there is no air traffic control team at McClellan and the pilots simply communicate with each other when they need to land and depart. 

The Tower Tech team is scheduling 12 air tankers on a loop, loading fire retardant, making drops and coming back to load up again. But the guys are also handling private planes here on business. 

More on CA wildfires - view from a firefighter

Thanks to a friend of mine who told about an NPR she heard reporting on the wildfires in northern California. She said that she had heard a firefighter talking about the challenges in fighting these "monstrous fires." I wasn't sure if I would be able to easily find the NPR audio report, but I think that I found the one that she is talking about. I am embedding the report below. The written NPR report (Oct 11th) where I found the audio report is slightly different, your will find it here.

I like this report because you are hearing from a wildland firefighter about the difficulties in fighting a wind-driven wildfire.

California wildfires - October 2017

Updated on October 12th at 12:30 PM. In an article posted on October 12th, Wildfire Today is reporting that:

The latest figures on this week’s wildfire outbreak, per CAL FIRE as of late Wednesday:

• 22 wildfires have burned more than 170,000 acres

• 3,500 homes and structures have been destroyed

• 21 people have died, and that figure is expected to rise

• More than 8,000 firefighters are working fires across the state, primarily those in Northern California’s wine country. This includes crews on 550 engines, 73 helicopters and 30 air tankers.

Be sure to go and read the entire October 12th article on the California wildfires on Wildfire Today

Fire Aviation has two articles on aviation resources fighting the California wildfires:

• on October 10th they wrote about aviation resources being stretched thin
• on October 11th they wrote about how air attack was important in halting the spread of the Canyon2 fire in Anaheim CA

Finally for those of you who might be interested in local coverage of the California wildfires:

• CBS Sacramento
• NBC BayArea
• NBC Los Angeles

October 11th I suspect that most of you know that among the wildfires currently burning in California are several wildfires burning in Northern California accounting for on the order of 115,000 acres burned. And this is just norther California, and doesn't include wildfires burning elsewhere in the State. These wildfires have been reported across much of the national media, both broadcast and print media. I understand that at least 2,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed and at least 15 people are dead with many more missing. My thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by these devastating wildfires. Thank-you to the wildfire crews on the ground for working these wildfires, stay safe.


Direct link to video from Shaking My Head Productions

Wildfire Today has been doing their usual extraordinary job covering the wildfires burning in California. See for example:

• Northern California among those who lost homes in Napa Valley
• Canyon2 Fire in Southern California
• 80,000 acres in 18 hours in Napa Valley (October 9th)
• Wildfires erupt overnight (October 9th) in California's wine country

I am posting some coverage of these wildfires. All these articles are good. Some of the coverage might be repetitious, but you can get a feeling for the devastation  by looking at the videos and phots from the fires.

California Broadcast and print media

• NBC4 Los Angeles on smoke from Canyon2 fire (October 11, photos and videos)
• NBC4 Los Angeles - images from space
• Anaheim CA wildfire; 8,000 acres burned and 36 structures burned
• NBCBayArea (October 11th) on Napa Valley Wildfires (videos and photos)

National media:

• CNN (October 11th) on California wildfires (good photo gallery and videos)
• New York Times (October 10th) on California wildfires (videos, a couple of photos)
• Washington Post (October 10th) on California wildfires (videos, a couple of photos)

Santiago Fire Crew (Orange County) working the Canyon Fire (CA)

Well, with a good three weeks without significant rainfall here in New Jersey, I was going to write about the dry conditions. But I won't. Instead, I am going to hold off on that post until the middle of next week. Let's just say I want to see what transpires between now and then in the weather department. We shall see, won't we.

I thought I'd share a crew video, uploaded by Randy Cruz of the Santiago Fire Crew of Orange County, California working the Canyon Fire. Allow a little under five minutes for the video. I wrote about the Canyon Fire here.


Direct link to video from Randy Cruz

Canyon Fire (Orange County CA) - some aerial operations

While I did not blog on the Canyon Fire that was first reported on September 25th, I did know about it in large part because of Bill Gabbert's coverage on Wildfire Today (see for example Bill's September 27th article) as well as Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day e-mail newsletters during this past week. According to the September 29th 7:01 AM PDT update from the Orange County (CA) Fire Authority (page may be updated when you access) the wildfire has burned 2,662 acres and is at 75 percent containment. Evacuation orders in place earlier this week have been lifted and six structures have been damaged.

I'd like to share some videos that I found of some of the aerial operations earlier this week over the Canyon Fire.


Direct link to video from CBS SF Bay Area


Direct link to video from Mark Giradeau


Direct link to video from wakebrdr94

Wildland firefighters in San Diego County CA working a wildfire (9/24/17)

Thanks to todays' Wildfire News of the Day e-mail newsletter from Mike Archer who shared this video of wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air working a wildfire on September 24, 2017 near the San Diego River (near Friars Rd and I-5).  Mike shared a link to the Firehouse website where I watched the youtube that I am embedding below.



Direct link to video (you will want to click on "show more" to read the complete description of the wildfire.)

Images from recent wildfires in California and Canada

Here are some videos and images from recent wildfire activity in California and Western Canada.

First up a video shot from the cockpit of a C-130 MAFFS from the 146th Airlift Wing team. There was a nice short article on the Weather Nation about this C-130 MAFFS with a link to the video from the National Guard that I am embedding below. This is great footage of the view from the cockpit of working a fire.


Direct link to video on Youtube from the National Guard


CBS News had a nice report (with a photo gallery and videos) on wildfires in California and western Canada (go here for the September 13th report from CBS News). The video link in the report that says "wildfires rage in 8 western states (dated September 3rd) may lead you to another CBS News video, However I did find a direct link to this video. As always, I am never quite certain how link the embed code for videos from network news outlets will work. So if you arrive here later to find that the videos no longer play, you will know why. Before I share the videos, there is a great photo gallery of images from wildfires in the western USA and Canada included in this CBS news report on the western widlfires. As fate would have it, I had trouble with the embed code that CBS news supplied, that happens sometimes so here are direct links to the two videos included in the report:

• Wildfires rage in 8 states (September 3, 2017)
• Time-lapse video of Eagle Creek Fire-OR (September 6, 2017)

Perhaps you will find references and links to these videos and the CBS September 13th report on the wildfires on other websites that cover wildland firefighting. I  heard about these reports and videos from Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day e-mail newsletter for September 19, 2017. Mike does a great job with the Wildfire News of the Day (5 or 6 days a week). Thanks Mike!

Stories from survivors of the 2003 Cedar Fire (San Diego County CA)

The Cedar Fire, driven by Santa Anna winds burned over 280,000 acres in San Diego County California in late October/early November of 2003. In the first 24 hours something like 100,000 acres had burned. Fifteen people died including one firefighter. 2,232 residences were destroyed, 22 commercial buildings and 566 outbuildings were destroyed. The wildfire was human caused by a lost hunter setting a signal fire.

The Cedar Fire occurred some five years before I got interested in learning about wildland fires and blogging about what I was learning. Memory can be a funny thing, but I am pretty certain that I remember hearing about this wildfire through newspaper and other media accounts.

A friend of mine told me about, The Fire Outside my Window: A Survivor Tells the True Story About the Epic Cedar Fire, by Sharon Millers Younger. It is on my list of books to read.

I was looking for something to watch on TV last night (Sunday, August 13th) and came across a preview for NBC's Dateline Survivor. The show's title was "Inferno" and the description told me that I would hear survivors of the 2003 Cedar Fire tell there stories. Not all stories have happy endings, one family tells of the death of their young daughter. I watched "Inferno" with interest because of my wildland firefighters recommendation of Sharon Millers Younger's book. It turned out that Ms. Younger and her husband were among those who told their stories about surviving the Cedar Fire.

I watched the show with interest because it gave me a view of the experience of surviving an epic fire such as the Cedar Fire. A view that I don't ordinarily get to see. Not a comfortable show to watch, but important for me to watch. I have a lot to think about, and expect that I will have more to think about after I read Younger's book. The two hour shows focuses mainly on the stories of some of the survivors of the Cedar Fire. If you want an analysis or after action report of the wildfire, this is not the show for you.

For those who are interested, here is a link to an NBC site with what I think is the full edition of "Inferno". Note that you will have to disable your ad blocker, if you have one. I had difficulty disabling the ad blocker on Fire Fox but was able to disable my ad blocker on both Chrome and Safari on my Apple Mac. I don't know how long NBC will have this show online for free viewing. I don't know how long the NBC I linked to will have the full edition of "Inferno" on their website. If Dateline NBC has uploaded the show to their Youtube channel (NBC Dateline), I can not find it.