Eye on the Sky
This next fire season, keep your eye on the sky. Many U.S. Forest Service resources are airborne, and they do amazing things while amidst the clouds. Nationwide, the agency has over 100 helicopters that can rapidly deploy to assist with water drops on advancing fires. An additional 208 helicopters can be called as needed to herd large fires away from residential areas. The agency has 52 pilots who fly fixed wing planes and 29 air tankers, among other aircraft, in their fleet.
No matter what type of fire they encounter, Forest Service aircraft and trained crews are there to help. Working closely with CalFire and the Columbia Air Attack Base, the Forest Service delivers much needed water, supplies and personnel to the flaming front, on occasion saving lives and property.
To help save the town of Weed, CA, from the Boles Fire of 2014, Dave Phillips who normally works at the Bald Mountain Helibase on the Stanislaus National Forest (NF), supervised the laying of a patch of slurry, enabling approximately 200 trapped residents to safely flee the burning village.
“We had lost 157 homes,” said Phillips, “that’s when we got the order for the slurry drop.” The drops were made while the fire ripped through dried, flashy fuels forcing stunned residents to flee the town with what few belongings they could gather quickly.
Danny Johnson, a Forest Service employee who served as the Lead Plane Pilot on the Boles Fire, led multiple air tankers on the hair-raising retardant dive that painted a big red exit sign through town.
“They were 150 feet off the ground and the wind was gusting hard when he swooped in to protect the village,” said Phillips. “Lead planes guide in tankers so they can accurately aim their drops. In this instance, they used red slurry to draw an exit arrow for residents to follow, while safely fleeing the fire.”
Fortunately, both Johnson and Phillips had help that day. The tanker lineup, that kept the fire from turning into a tragedy, included: Tanker-95, Tanker-100, Tanker-43, Tanker-60, Tanker-10, Tanker-911 and Tanker-912.
Air support on the Rim Fire was equally helpful in saving communities. Within twelve minutes of the Rim Fire being reported, aircraft were on scene dropping retardant. Within 4.5 hours, 32,021 gallons had been used to slow the fire’s front. This happened despite the fact that other blazes in the region were competing for resources.
“Day after day, we used multiple aircraft to attack the Rim Fire. If it wasn’t for the significant presence of the aircraft tying in with ground crews who were cutting line, things may not have turned out so well for Tuolumne City, Pine Mountain Lake, or other communities adjacent to the Rim Fire area” reflects Phillips.
Air resources slowed the Rim Fire’s progress, allowing ground troops to gain the upper hand on the fire. Though aircraft play a critical role in slowing a fire, retardant drops cannot put out a fire.
Accurately dropping water or retardant takes skill and in order for tanker drops to be effective, they must be precise. Many pilots and helicopter managers train at the Wildland Fire Training Center (WFTC) located in McClellan, CA. WFTC is a Forest Service facility that houses a flight simulator fire personnel use to hone their skills before diving in on wildfires for low level drops.
“It gives pilots a chance to fly through a three dimensional fire on practice runs. Other aircraft pop up on their screens and pilots have to talk with Dispatch and ground crews while flying,” said Phillips. “Though it can’t imitate the stressful conditions of a fire exactly, it definitely gives our pilots a leg up on the real world.”
Juggling a fast-paced, complex air response is something you can learn, in part, from simulated exercises, but nothing replaces years of experience.
“As an Air Attack Group Supervisor, coordinating the air space is a huge part of my job,” said Phillips. “Getting water to where it counts the most is also important.”
Dropping water is just one thing aircraft and personnel are trained to do. Sometimes these same resources are used to drop fire. Though many prescribed fires or burnouts are lit by hand using a drip torch, aircraft can drop ping pong balls filled with chemicals that rapidly interact to create small spot fires when they hit the ground.
Those tiny balls of fire can eat up unwanted fuel within the perimeter of a prescribed burn unit. They can also be used to rapidly consume fuel away from an area during a burnout operation. Since holding lines are planned, staffed and burned out in advance, this can be a safe way to remove a lot of fuel rapidly. It also reduces exposing firefighters to the additional risks they would face on the ground, such as thickets of fuel, poison oak and stinging insects.
“There’s a big difference between being proactive about fuels versus reactive,” said Chris Schow, Fire Management Officer, Stanislaus NF. “The Rim Fire, which was an unplanned wildland fire, put us into reactive mode. Prescribed fires, which are planned in advance, give us a lot more control of the situation and they can shift the landscape into a healthier state.”
Restoring forest health in the future means allowing fire to play its natural role on the landscape. Aircraft are there to help. Aside from dropping water and igniting prescribed burns, aircraft are also a key resource used in monitoring lightning strikes that start fires at higher elevations.
“Recent statistics show lightning starts an average of 27 fires on the forest every year,” said Wendy Flannery, Emergency Communications Center Manager, Stanislaus NF. “Campfires that escape control are the next biggest contributor to unplanned wildfires on the forest. Last year alone, campfires were responsible for seven unplanned fire starts.” Putting out untended campfires before they escape adds work to the fire staff who could be monitoring lightning storms instead.
Although lightning sensors are staggered across mountaintops throughout the West to detect cloud-to-ground strikes, helicopters are pivotal in locating these lightning-caused fires based upon the latitude and longitude the sensors provide.
In low risk areas, some of these lightning caused fires can be managed to accomplish fuels objectives. “It’s not necessary to put all fires out,” said Brent Kaiser, Battalion Chief, Summit Ranger District.”
According to the wildland fire risk management protocols, you have to pick the right fire, at the right place, at the right time in order to effectively manage lightning fires to achieve fuels objectives. When you do this, the end result can be truly effective in getting rid of excess fuel on the ground.
“There is a misconception that managing a lightning caused fire means you give up control, but that’s not the case,” said Kaiser. “You can herd the fire in a desired direction and even take suppression actions on sections of the fire that need to be put out. There are lots of options available to us.”
Sometimes suppressing the fire is the best option. Forest Service smokejumpersparachute out of aircraft to attack remote fires managers decide to suppress. The agency has 320 jumpers to deploy. These firefighters must be in top shape, since they fight fire under extreme conditions, in remote, mountainous terrain. Fire-worn jumpers may also need to haul out 115 pounds of gear on their backs after the fire fight is over.
If you call in the Cavalry on a wildfire these days, don’t expect them to show up on horses. This Forest Service Cavalry moves fast, and it has wings…and parachutes…and tankers.
As the 2015 fire season unfolds, keep your eye on the sky. “The Forest Service will be there,” said Phillips, “and we aim to deliver.”