Tag Archives: wildfire

Technology

Oregon Wildfires: Militias love it, CH-47F airborne firefighter!

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20 SEP 2017 /20:16 UTC-07 Tango 06 (30 Sharivar 1396/29 Dhu l-Hijja 1438/02 Ji-Yu 4715)

“We love doing this. This is our favorite part of the year!   …..We run a great risk in this, if there’s an up-draft of heat, or a down-draft, we have to be able to be ‘Johnny-on-the-spot’ to keep us in the air. There’s a lot more challenge in it, risk versus reward. It’s super rewarding when we are combating open flame all day long.”-Sergeant Joseph Ford, Oregon National Guard

Oregon Army National Guard’s Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 168th Aviation Regiment has dropped more than 4.5-million liters (1.2-million U.S. gallons) of water using three of their new CH-47 F-model Chinooks, in the past month and a half.

“Where else can you go where you get to do this? I have the coolest job in the world! One morning I’m at my home station, and later that afternoon I’m 5-hundred-miles away, supporting a state mission and dropping buckets of water. I get a lot of satisfaction doing these state missions.”-Sergeant Jeremy Maddox

“Those Air Attack guys have been doing this often for 20-to-30 years to get to this level, they know the big picture…we can’t put the fire out completely, but what we can do is help control it, and keep it from spreading certain directions.”-Chief Warrant Officer 2 David Brannen

“There is a lot of helicopter on the Chinooks back here (behind the flight deck or cockpit), that the pilots can’t see. Our job is to paint a picture for them, a mental picture they can’t see, so they know and feel comfortable with what we’re going into. It takes a lot of trust in the back-seaters from the pilots. It’s a team effort. Without one, the job can’t be accomplished.”-Sergeant Jeremy Maddox

MONTANA, OREGON & WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOY TO FIGHT WILDFIRES!

KIT BASHING: SPECIAL OPS BOEING MH-47 CHINOOK, POCATELLO AIRPORT

U.S.

Montana, Oregon & Washington National Guard deploy to fight wildfires!

Video

“The western fires are not stopping. They’re just getting bigger.”-James Casaus, Incident Commander

“If we don’t start managing our forests, the forests are going to start managing us. The fires burning across Montana are a catastrophe, and we need all available resources to combat this threat.”-Steve Daines, senator for Montana

On 13 SEP 2017, Montana’s Air National Guard deployed to fight at least 21 wildfires in The Treasure State.

Montana has so far spent $50-million USD in state taxpayer funding fighting fires!

NBCMontana: Wildfire update, 14 SEP 2017

On 09 SEP 2017, the Oregon National Guard continued another round of firefighting training conducted by the state Department of Public Safety.  So far five groups of Oregon National Guard personnel have gone through the training.  Oregon has so far spent 28-million state taxpayer dollars fighting 18 wildfires.

U.S. Army personnel chow down after helping to fight fires in Oregon, 10 SEP 2017

So far, the U.S. Forest Service has spent a record 2.1-billion federal tax dollars fighting wildfires across the western United States!

Video, Washington National Guard firefighting ‘mop-up’ ops 09 SEP 2017:

IDAHO CONDUCTS MASSIVE MAFFS TRAINING, IN PREPS FOR HOT WILDFIRE SEASON!

MAFFS : WILDFIRE SEASON 2018 GOING TO BE A HOT ONE!

Idaho, Technology, U.S.

MAFFS: What does it take to maintain a flying military firetruck?

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23 April 2017 / 23:49 UTC-07 Tango 06  (03 Ordibehest 1396/26 Rajab 1438/28 Jia Chen 4715)

Susan Kett of U.S. Forest Service, David Lafon of North Carolina Forest Service and Robert Wheatley from CAL FIRE, on the flightline at Gowen Field, Idaho.

Technical Sergeant Miguel Corona, 146th Maintenance Squadron California National Guard, inspects the flight deck of a C-130J at Gowen Field, Idaho.

Tech. Sgt. Kye Dudley, 146th Maintenance Squadron California National Guard, inspects main wheel wells of a C-130J at Gowen Field, Idaho.

Senior Airman Santos Casaus operates ground generator that will provide electrical power to a sleeping C-130J, Gowen Field, Idaho.

Staff Sgt. Joseph Perez inspects the prop of a C-130J at Gowen Field, Idaho. If oil is leaking from the prop hub the whole propeller assembly must be replaced.

Even transports use HUDs (Heads Up Display). Airman 1st Class Alexis Carranza inspects the HUD inside a C-130J at Gowen Field, Idaho, 20 APR 2017.

Tech. Sgt. Miguel Corona inspects an oxygen mask inside of a C-130J.

Fire in the Hole! USAF Staff Sgt. Kelsey Herzfeld, assigned to the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing, preps to connect the MAFFS nozzle to one of two Wyoming Air National Guard MAFFS C-130H. The work was done before leaving for Idaho. The Wyoming Air Militia has been flying MAFFS missions since 1975.

Nevada “High Rollers” C-130H follows a USFS spotter plane over western Idaho, 21 APR 2017.

A MAFFS unit being installed in a C-130H. Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System can dump 3-thousand gallons of water in five seconds!

Video: MAFFS BOMBS IDAHO!

Technology

MAFFS: Wildfire season 2018 going to be a hot one?

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10 September 2016 (15:32 UTC-07 Tango 01) 20 Shahrivar 1395/07 Dhu I-Hijja 1437/10 Ding-You 4714

North Carolina Air National Guard photo by First Lieutenant Monica Ebert.

Apparently the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Defense (DoD) think the 2018 fire season is gonna’ be big because they’ve just added another MAFFS C-130 firefighting unit to their western states inventory.

Nevada National Guard 152 Airlift Wing’s brand new MAFFS C-130H

MAFFS stands for Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System.  The Forest Service owns the MAFFS, the DoD (through USAF Reserve and state militias) provides the C-130s and personnel to operate it.

C-130J MAFFS 4, Channel Islands, California

Currently there are three MAFFS units operated by the state militias of California, North Carolina and Wyoming, and one MAFFS Air Force Reserve unit out of Colorado.  Since early August MAFFS have already flown 142 firefighting missions, dropping more than 3.5-million pounds (1.6-million kilos) of fire-retardant in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon.

North Carolina ANG photo by First Lieutenant Monica Ebert.

Nevada’s 152 AW High Rollers will be used to augment the units from Colorado and Wyoming, and will be based in Reno.  While MAFFS fly missions across the country, the U.S. Forest Service wanted a new MAFFS unit whose home base is in the fire prone Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.  The MAFFS equipment is being transferred from North Carolina Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing to Nevada’s 152nd Airlift Wing.

C-130H MAFFS 8, out of North Carolina

This year’s official fire season began MAFFS on-job-training for crews of the High Rollers: “The actual drops have been challenging and exhilarating. It’s a great feeling to see your immediate results whether we are dropping a protective line of retardant between the fire and someone’s property or dropping ‘mud’ directly on flames leaping from the tops of trees in an effort to slow the fire’s progress.”-Lietenant Colonel Tony Machabee, first member of the High Rollers to co-pilot a MAFFS mission

The U.S. Forest Service wants the new 152 AW MAFFS unit ready to launch for the 2018 wildfire season.  The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences predicts that by 2050 the official U.S. wildfire season will be three weeks longer, and for several years now the Pacific Northwest has been dealing with major fires in the official off-season.

Video: 45 YEARS OF C-130 MAFFS OPS. WHO WOULD’VE KNOWN WILDFIRES WOULD BECOME SUCH A PROBLEM? 

Despite a busy wildfire season, Oregon based helicopter fire bomber operator Erickson Air Crane laid off 1-hundred people! Company administrators admitted that despite years of busy wildfire seasons they’re burned by massive debt to Wells Fargo (the evil bank owned by ‘christian’ agnostic Warren Buffett).

Technology

45 years of C-130 MAFFS ops. Who would’ve known wildfires would become such a problem?

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31 July 2016 (14:35 UTC-07 Tango 01) 10 Mordad 1395/25 Shawwal 1437/28 Yi-Wei 4714

IDAHO WILDFIRES 16 AUGUST 2012: MAFFS C-130s RETURN TO POCATELLO AIRPORT

MAFFS 2 & 6: USAF RESERVE & NATIONAL GUARD C-130 WATER BOMBERS @ POCATELLO AIRPORT

On the way back from a 'friendly' with Canadian armor in Alberta, 2002.

Me sleeping on Idaho militia C-130 mattress, on the way back from a ‘friendly’ with Canadian armor in Alberta, 2002.

Some of my other C-130 trips (click pics to make bigger):

“C-130 rolling down the strip!
Airborne Ranger gonna take a little trip!
We gonna stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door!
We gonna jump right out, and then count to four!
My main don’t open, I use my reserve!
My reserve don’t open, I loose my nerve!”-U.S. Army running cadence I used to sing during Army Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in 1982

Idaho

Idaho Wildfires kill woman

16 August 2015 (04:17 UTC-07 Tango 01)/25 Mordad 1394/01 Dhu al-Qa’dah 1436/03 Jia-Shen (7th month) 4713

Repeat offender, I mean 3rd term gov’na Butch Otter declared a state of emergency.

In northern Idaho’s Idaho County a 70 years old woman died and it’s blamed on the wildfires.  She was preparing to evacuate her home when she fell and hit her head, fatally.

In the southwestern part of Idaho, in Owyhee County, the Soda Fire is currently the largest in the United States, forcing a delay to the start of the new school year and prompting voluntary evacuations.

Pokey Airport DC-10 Water Bomber

Charlotte Fire 2?

Pocatello Charlotte Fire update

 

Idaho, Technology

East Idaho Wildfires 2012: Maintenance day for Skycrane fire fighter @ Pocatello Airport

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Photos by AAron B. Hutchins. Pics get bigger when you click on them:

EAST IDAHO WILDFIRES 2012: CURRENT FIRES FOR 12 JULY

BUSY 30 MINUTES AT POCATELLO AIRPORT, AS FIRE FIGHTING AIRCRAFT FLY INTO ACTION

SIKORSKY SKYCRANE LEAVES POCATELLO AIRPORT FOR COX’S WELL FIRE

Idaho, Technology

East Idaho Wildfires 2012: Sikorsky Skycrane leaves Pocatello Airport for Cox’s Well Fire

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Click on pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make them bigger:

U.S.

Texas Wildfires turn Deadly

As of Saturday, more than 700,000 acres (283,279 hectares) of land has burned, more than 30 homes destroyed, and now a volunteer firefighter was killed by the Texas sized wildfires.

Many fires combined and are continuing their rage across the state.  One fire was started, accidentally, by a welder’s torch.

Gregory Simmons was killed fighting the 3,000 acre (1214 hectares) Eastland County fire.

Fire officials say ten new fires started on Saturday.  Because of the severe drought, officials fear the fires could rage for two more months.