A Happy and Safe New Year to all.

I wish everyone a very Happy and Safe New Year. As 2018 winds down tonight, some of will be out celebrating, I wish all of you are celebrating a safe New Years Eve. Others may be traveling home tomorrow or the next day after time away.

I wanted to share a 2018 year in review video with you on the them of wildland firefighting and or first responders. Some of you know that among the states I have a special affinity for is Oklahoma. So it seems only fitting to share the following video with you from Oklahoma Emergency Services, titled "A Firefighter Tribute." The video is about Oklahoma, but the video speaks to this blog writer from New Jersey. Enjoy. Allow a little over eight minutes to watch the video.


Direct link to video from Oklahoma Emergency

Prescribed burns in U.S. Fall-Winter 2018-19

I was perusing Inciweb yesterday and noted that there is or has been a number of prescribed burns listed during the Fall and Winter of 2018-19. I am listing them below, any errors are mine. This list of prescribed burns is as of December 28, 2018. What you see when you access Inciweb may be different.

Indiana

Hoosier National Forest

Colorado

Big Horn Sheep 636 acres

Slash Pile Burning 2018

Dolores Ranger District

Idaho

Rapid River 5,000 acres

PV NIDGS 350 acres

Mill Creek Council Mountain

East Fork 2,130 acres

Rocky Bear 52 acres

Payette, Fall 2018 3,732 acres

Four Mile 2,000 acres

Bald Hill 1,200 acres

Nevada

Range Two Fire 9.196 acres

Arizona

KNF-GRCA North Zone, 2018-2019 3,000 acres

Kabob NF South Zone 300 acres

2018 Fall/Winter Burns 226 acres

Tonto National Forest 500 acres

California

Shasta Trinity

Kern River Ranger District 20 acres

Pine Cove

Oregon

2018 Umtilla NF

I am embedding a short video showing a controlled (aka prescribed burn) in the Mequon Nature Preserve in Wisconsin


Direct link to video on Youtube

Seasons Greetings and thank-you to all wildland firefighters

I took the last two days off to spend time with my family and friends during this holiday season. I am well aware that for many wildland firefighters -- on the ground or in the air -- as well as structure firefighters were working those two days to keep us safe. At times sacrificing time with their families. So, I want to take some time again, to thank all wildland firefighters for your service. I also want to wish all wildland firefighters and structure firefighters a very happy holiday season and a happy New Year.

The tribute video below may be a rerun, so to speak, as I have shared it at least twice on the blog. The video was uploaded to Youtube over tent years ago, but it stands the test of time, offering a good tribute to wildland firefighters. Further it was one of my favorites. I post this with thanks in my heart for all that wildland firefighters -- on the ground and in the air -- do to keep us safe.


Direct link to video on Youtube

Seasons Greetings

My end of year holiday tradition is to embed Frederick Forsyth's The Shepard, read by Alan Maitland. The Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) broadcasts The Shepard every year around this time of year. For those of you who don't have the easy opportunity to listen to The Shepard on CBC, I am embedding it below. Enjoy


Direct link to The Shepard on Youtube

Drone incursions at Gatewick Airport in London

I have written some articles about unmanned aircraft systems (aka drones) and the dangers they pose to aerial operations, including but not limited to aerial wildland firefighting. I continue to be aware of the problems that drone incursions may cause to aerial operations. Air tankers and helicopters are grounded from aerial operations over wildfires when drones are spotted. Drone operations near airports can pose a risk to airport operations.

When reading my daily newspapers, I noted that a drone incursion had shut down all flights into and out of Gatewick Airport in London from Wednesday night (December 19th) into early Friday morning (December 21st). As a result of the drone incursion(s) Gatewick was closed for about 32 hours during one of the busiest travel times of the year leading to chaos at the airport. The airport reopened to flights early in the morning of December 21st only to be have all flights suspended  late in the afternoon for an hour or so after another suspected drone incursion. See this December 21st article from the New York Times for more information.

I am embedding a video from BBC about the dangers drones pose to aviation and what the British are trying to do. Be advised that in the United States, drones have to be registered with the FAA, go to this FAA site to read about drone safety tips and drone operations. For information about drone registration with the F.A.A. go here.



Direct link to video

2018 wildfire season: Camp Fire post fire hazardous waste clean-up

After I finished graduate school, I spent some time on a job where I had to have a passing familiarity with remediation of household, commercial, and industrial hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is any type of waste that poses a risk to public health, animals and the environment. No I am not any kind of expert in remediation or in environmental science or engineering. But I had to know the lingo and have a passing familiarity with what was involved with remediating sites contaminated with hazardous waste. At the very least, I had to be able listen and understand. That was over fifteen years ago. So when I was perusing some recent articles on the Camp Fire that recently decimated Paradise California, I was interested to see an article from KQED about the hazardous waste clean-up from the Camp Fire, go here to read the article.

I know that this is not the first large fire where hazardous waste clean-up is necessary. However, I was paying attention this time and because of my background fifteen plus years ago, I knew that I had to write about the hazardous waste clean-up in Paradise following the Camp Fire. It is important to consider that the hazardous waste clean-up is ongoing in Paradise at the time I write this and will be for awhile.

The hazardous waste clean-up in Paradise started on or about Monday, December 3rd. However, evacuation orders had to be lifted before work could start in a specific neighborhood. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the lead agency. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) as assisting the EPA. Various agencies in Paradise are assisting including but not limited to the Police. My understanding is that the first phase of the post-fire debris removal program involves the cleaning up and removing household hazardous waste without cost to the homeowner. Commercial hazardous waste is also cleaned up in phase one. Household hazardous waste includes but is not limited to: asbestos, batteries (lead), paints, solvents, pesticides and herbicides, propane tanks, cleaners, etc. Once the household hazardous waste is removed that property will identified by means of a tag.

Only when the household hazardous waste has been removed, then part two, debris removal can begin. In part two the soil from the ash footprint will be scraped down to 3 to 6 inches with samples sent to a lab for analysis. If the soil testing indicates contamination, than more soil is removed and another soil sample is taken until the soil test is clear of contaminants. Go to this Butte County site on post-fire debris removal  for more information. As I write this, I am assuming that this site will be available until the debris removal is completed. It is my understanding that ash is removed in part 2, debris removal.

I don’t know exactly know how long the hazardous waste clean-up will take, and then there will part two, debris removal. I am also aware that there have to be other issues that homeowners whose residences are more or less intact after the Camp Fire may have to contend with, such as damage to private water wells and septic systems. Public water supplies are likely to be contaminated as well and residents should pay attention to any advisories regarding using their water, including but not limited to boil water advisories. Then there will be the health effects if any ash is left. And of course, the electric infrastructure is damaged.

Salmon Heli-Rappellers proficiency training

Heli-rappelling is an important aspect of wildland firefightings as specially trained wildland firefighters rappel down from helicopters to often remote areas to work a wildland fire. Enjoy this video showing the Salmon Heli-Rappellers proficiency training shot using a helmet camera. From 2014.


Direct link to video

Thank-you wildland firefighters (2018 version)

Thanks to my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page for sharing a great tribute video on their video of the week page (updated weekly).

I share this video in honor of, and to thank all the wildland firefighters on the ground and in their air as well as their support teams for your service in 2018, sometimes under very difficult conditions.


Direct link to video from MacCloud Entertainment

USFS one-year air tanker contracts

Regular readers know that I follow Bill Gabbert's Wildfire Today  and Fire Aviation websites. I am sure that many of you follow Bill's websites. Those of you who are interested in staying current on the news affecting wildland fire fighting and fire aviation will want to follow his websites.  No doubt that some of you are already familiar with Bill's December 6th Fire Aviation article, "Forest Service moving to one-year contracts for air tankers." I hope that those of you who have not read Bill's article on the upcoming one-years contracts for air tankers will do so now, it is well worth the read and perhaps you will want to bookmark the article as I have done. I decided to make this post referencing this article that Bill wrote because I think the news of the upcoming one-year contracts for air tankers is important. I don't really have anything original to add, but I do want to reference a couple of points that he makes.

Those of you who are so inclined, may be interested in looking at the RFP solicitation that Bill linked to in his article. For your convenience, I am providing a link to this RFP solicitation found on the FBO website here. The RFP calls for a one-year contract for air tankers with options for four additional one-year contracts. I believe that the solicitation is calling for up to five large air tankers. Contracts will commence with the 2019 calendar year.

After reminding us about the overall decrease in air tankers from 44 in 2002 to 14 in 2018, Bill points to the difficulties this type of contract could pose to contractors seeking to add new air tankers to their fleet of air tankers:

Air tankers are very expensive to purchase and retrofit. Most of the jet-powered tankers being used today before being converted were retired from their original mission and are decades old  . . .  Most air tanker operators in the United States prefer to buy retired airliners like the BAe-146,  DC-10, or variants of the C-130 and convert them to carry and dispense retardant. Retrofitting alone runs into the millions. Few if any vendors can simply write a check to purchase and convert an air tanker, so they have to convince a lender to give them large sums of money usually even before they have a contract with the USFS. With this new one-year contract policy, obtaining those funds could be even more difficult. (Bill Gabbert, Forest Service moving to one-year contracts for air tankers)

You will want to read Bill's article for more information and analyses.

I remain concerned about the smaller number of large air tankers on exclusive-use contracts. I am very cautiously hopeful that, if awarded, this solicitation could result in up five additional large air tankers on contract in 2019. However, as Bill points out, the USFS has the option of not exercising its option to contract for these large air tankers in years two through five.

I am sure that Bill will do his usual good job in following the status of this solicitation and any resulting awards. I will be following Bill's Fire Aviation website for developments and hope that you do as well

2018 wildfire season: Vista Grande Hotshots

Enjoy this 24 minute video from the Vista Grande Hotshots (San Bernadino National Forest, California) summarizing their 2018 wildfire season. In the first three minutes or so you will meet the crew. Then the video takes you through highlights of their fire season. Included among the wildfires they worked are:

Pawnee/County Fire (MDF) at approximately 4 minutes (m)16 seconds (s)
Lassen National Forest at approximately 6m.50s
Carr Fire, Redding California at approximately 9m12s'=
Cranston Fire, BDF at approximately 11m23s
Holy Fire, Cleveland National Forest at approximately 13m04s
Hirz Fire, Shasta-Trinity National Forest at approximately 15m58s
Colorado at approximately 18m18s
Small fires and random photos at approximately 20m23s


Direct link to video uploaded

Remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

At some point in my youth, perhaps when I was in high school. I asked my parents what they remembered about the day Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked. As I recall, and acknowledging that memory can sometimes be unreliable, both of my parents knew exactly where they were when they heard about the attack. I wish I could say that I remember what they told me. But that isn't important. What is important is that they remembered.

One of my grandfathers, an officer in the U.S. Army, served in the war. My other grandfather was a civilian who worked in the aeronautical industry supporting the air war. I thank them for their service.

I to remember, not in the same day that my parents and those of their generation did, but I remember.

And #WeRemember

So, because #WeRemember, I share this video from the US Army that they uploaded to youtube for National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.


Direct link to video on Youtube uploaded by the U.S. Army

RIP George H. W. Bush: WWII Naval Aviator and 41st President

Today, I pause to remember the passing of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States. He was the last President who served in World War II. He served as a naval aviator. I understand that he is wearing his airplane socks.

I expect that most of you in the U.S. have heard by now of his service in World War II and that his plane was shot down in the Pacific.

President Bush, may you fly in favorable tail winds.

Even if you are familiar with President Bush's World War II service, please take three minutes to listen to his son, Neil Bush, talk about his Father's military service.

Updated on December 20, 2020: the video that I shared when I first posted this article is no longer available.

Military Helicopters fighting wildfires

Please enjoy these two videos of military helicopters working wildfires in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground. Both videos were uploaded by Gung Ho Vids.

In the first video, from 2014, you will see U.S. Marine helicopters working out of Camp Pendleton in southern California.


Direct link to video


The video below shows National Guard helicopters working wildfires in Oregon and Washington.


Direct link to video

2018 wildfire season: Mad River Hotshots

In November 2018, I had shared a nice video summarizing the Mad River Hotshots 2018 fire season. Unfortunately it is no longer available.

Neptune Aviation Tankers with some SEATs

I have been writing this blog on aerial wildland firefighting for almost ten years now. I began writing about wildfires in fall of 2008 moving into learning about and writing about tankers and helicopters used to fight wildfires in early 2009. When I was first wrote about airtankers in 2009, among the tankers that I first learned about were Neptune Aviation's P-2V tankers and Aero Union's P-3 tankers. Both of these contractors had Exclusive Use Contracts with the US Forest Service in those days. The US Forest Service terminated it's contract with Aero Union's P-3 tankers in August 2011.

Neptune Aviation is still around but the last of their Lockheed P-2V Tankers retired at the end of the 2017 season. Neptune Aviation started flying BAe-146 tankers a few years, now their entire tanker fleet are BAe-146 tankers.

For no particular reason, I have been thinking of the Neptune Aviation tankers that I have known, the now retire P-2V tanker and the BAe-146 tankers. So I am sharing some videos with you today, with some SEATs thrown in. Gotta love the very versatile SEATs.


Direct link to video


Direct link to video


Direct link to video


Direct link to video


Direct link to video

Tanker and helicopter wildfire footage (late November 2018 edition)

I started this blog to focus on aerial wildland firefighting. As regular readers know, I delve into related issues. But today I want to get back to tankers and helicopters working wildfires. To that end I have a few videos that I want to embed here to share with you. Before I do, I want to acknowledge that I need to rewrite my airtankers 101 page, something that I will work on over the next several weeks. Please be patient as I revise that page.

Now to the videos. In this first video, you will see a few different types of airtankers working wildfires. I believe that among the airtankers you will see in this video are: Neptune Aviation BAe-146, Global Supertanker 747, Aero Air MD-87, Canadair CL-415 Scooper, and 10 Tanker DC-10.


Direct link to video

In this video you will see the Contra Costa County Sheriff's STARR1 helicopter working a wildfire.


Direct link to video

Los Angeles County Fire Department Helicopter, Copter 14, working a brush fire in Los Angeles County California area on or about October 14, 2018.


Direct link to video

2018 wildfire season: California wildfires (Nov 23rd) Camp & Woolsey Fires

The Woolsey Fire burned 99.949 acres and is at 100 percent containment. Three firefighters were injured and 3 civilians died. 1,500 structures were destroyed and 341 were damaged. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

As I write this, here are the stats for the Camp Fire:

• 153,336 acres burned, at 95 percent containment. 
• 13,672 single residences destroyed, 465 single residences damaged, 282 multiple residences destroyed, 514 commercial structures destroyed, 105 commercial structures damaged, 4,265 minor structures destroyed.
• Three firefighter injuries.
• 84 civilian fatalities to date.
• cause under investigation.

In the last couple of days, it rained in the area of the Camp Fire which helped firefighters to contain the fire.  Perhaps the rain has hampered or slowed down the search and rescue efforts as the search for the missing continues and the death count climbs.

I saw this video on the Sacamento Bee the other day and wanted to share it with you. In this five minute video you will hear Cheryl talk about how she survived the Camp Fire with her cat. She was rescued two days after the fire broke out.

Direct link to Sacramento Bee story and video

Thanksgiving wishes and remembrances

On the eve of this Thanksgiving holiday in America:

• For all who are traveling, I wish you safe travels.
• For those of you spending the holiday with your family and/or friends, enjoy the moment.
• For wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air working wildfires this holiday weekend, you are away from your families. Stay safe and thank-you.
• More and more people are working this weekend, perhaps in hospitals or police fire and ambulance service. the National Weather Service is a 24/7 operation, some will be on shift on Thanksgiving. Others in retail or other service positions. Hopefully if you celebrate Thanksgiving, you celebrate before or after work. Know that your work is appreciated.
• Thank-you to all of you in the military who are away from your family and friends overseas. Thank-you for your sacrifice and your service.

I am aware that for many there is little to be thankful for. For some it is because you are alone and have no place to go. Thousands of you have had your homes burned in wildfires, some of you are with your families, and others of you are in shelters or camps. Hundreds if not thousands of you have been affected by recent typhoons and hurricanes and your home may be completely destroyed or not habitable, perhaps you are still in a shelter or camp or making do the best you can on your property

2018 wildfire season: California wildfires (Nov 19th)

Woolsey Fire (Thousand Oaks CA): 3 dead, 1,500 structures destroyed As I write this this 96,649 acre fire is at 94 percent containment,

Camp Fire (Paradise CA):As I write this, 77 people are dead, several hundred are missing, 11,713 homes destroyed, 277 multiples residences destroyed472 commercial buildings destroyed. The fire has burned 150,000 acres to date and is at 65 percent containment. Helicopters are working the fire in support of wildland firefighters on the ground. Search and rescue crews continue to search for the missing.

NPR report on the fires (November 19th)

To make matters even more uncomfortable for those who are homeless after the Camp Fire, there are outbreaks of the Noro Virus (aka stomach flu) at some of the shelters.


Direct link to video

Like a lot of people, I think about the residents of Paradise CA everyday, often multiple times a day as well as all the firefighters, search and rescue teams, and those supporting those who are homeless and perhaps sick from the Noro Virus.

I offer these videos as an act of remembrance for all those who have lost homes, have missing loved ones, whose loved ones have died, search and rescue teams, those supporting the victims of the fire, and all wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air. The first video is a video report from ABC News on or about November 13th reporting on survivors of the Camp and Woolsey Fires.The second video (from the Sacramento Bee)below may be a little hard to look at, they are describing how search and rescue teams look for human remains, The third video, also from the Sacramento Bee is an authorized drone fly over of Paradise CA on or about November 13th


Direct link  to video from ABC News (November 13th)


Direct link to video from Sacramento Bee (November 16th)



Direct link to video from the Sacramento Bee (November 13th)

SEAT footage from the cockpit (2015)

Enjoy this footage from the cockpit of a Single Engine Airtanker (SEAT) shot from the cockpit while working the 2015 Windy Ridge Fire on August 12, 2015. This footage was uploaded to Youtube by the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon (BLMOregon).


Direct link to video from BLMOregon on Youtube