Air Attack – What Does That Mean?

Posted on September 15, 2024 by Robin

For the best explanation of the question in the title listen to Life With Fire podcast featuring my son, Matt, who explains Air Attack and discusses the expectations and reality for use of aircraft in wildland firefighting. This is what you will hear. I think it’s a great podcast, even if I am a little biased.

I wrote this blog post when Kirby was here and we visited Matt’s office at the USFS Wildland Fire Training and Conference Center at the old McClellan Air Force Base, now the McClellan Business Park. Matt is hardly ever at his office, at least not during this season. Right now he is near San Bernardino on the Line Fire.

This is from this morning’s (9-15-2024) CBS News online: “Firefighters continued to gain ground in their firefight against the 38,421-acre Line Fire, which was burning in San Bernardino County. The fire, believed to be the result of arson, was 36% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported Sunday. .. Over 4000 personnel are assigned to the fire across multiple fire agencies…”

Last month I picked Matt up in Placerville after he returned a rental car he was using on his last fire assignment. We stopped at the Placerville Airport where helicopters had been staged for some of the recent fires in Northern California.

This is the helicopter Matt is usually in. He is in touch with the other aircraft and ground personnel and helps direct the air attack where it is needed.

Another view of Matt’s helicopter with the pilot waiting for action.

This Chinook helicopter is huge. I can’t remember the details now. I think it can carry 2000 gallons of water. (I may have pulled that number out of the air and I can’t ask Matt right now. I just asked Mr. Google and see that Chinooks of various configurations may carry 2500 to 3000 gallons and fill at a rate of 4000 gallons/minute.)

The Chinook fills with a retractable snorkel. There are windows down low in the front to give a better view of the ground.

This is the cargo area.

If the Chinook is called into action this whole crew goes with it. There is a fuel truck, and a maintenance/mechanic truck and trailer. I think Matt said that two mechanics are with the team at all times.

After seeing the helicopters we drove to Matt’s house outside Pollock Pines and shared a firefighter lunch he had brought with him. There are a lot of calories there–needed when on the fire line.

Then we drove up the mountain to take Ralston for a swim.

The destruction of the Caldor Fire in 2021 is obvious.

On lands that are privately owned much of the burned timber was harvested while it could still be used for lumber. Trees have been replanted, but I won’t see the return of this forest in my lifetime.

Granddaughter Visit – Airbase Tour

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Robin

The previous two blog posts were about Kirby’s two-week visit in July. On Tuesday of the second week we drove to McClellan Air Force Base, no longer a military base, for a private tour by Matt. Dan’s sister and my brother joined us.

We started at the building used by the USFS for operations and training. I have a general idea of what Matt does at work, but it is sure different to see the details. He is a Helicopter Operations Specialist for the Pacific Southwest Region and spends time in the air managing helicopter operations and coordinating the air traffic over fires (water drops, retardant drops, keeping planes and helicopters from flying into each other). He has an office in this building as well.

Since this tour I have heard reference to fire strategy training with the sandbox, but I would have had no idea what that meant before seeing this. There are at least two rooms with sandboxes of various sizes. They use red and black yarn to designate active fire and burned areas.

There are toy vehicles, buildings, trees, animals and more. When in use the sand can be moved to create geographic features so that firefighters can discuss fire behavior and fire fighting strategies.

After looking at the sandbox rooms we went to the simulator room. There are probably a dozen simulators for airplanes and helicopters.

We all had a chance to try the simulator. It’s not easy.

Dan and Kirby were both in the airplane simulator here and my brother tried the helicopter. Most of us crashed numerous times and dropped retardant on unintended locations.

Interesting photos line the hallways of this building. After the tour of Matt’s building we went to the airfield and met up with a friend of Matt’s who is his counterpart working for CalFire.

We watched this DC-10 land and taxi to where it would be filled with retardant.

It carries 9000 gallons but can be filled quickly.

The turn-around time was just under 30 minutes. This was a few days before the Park Fire began (arson) near Chico, CA. That fire is now over 400,000 acres and is still burning. On this day this plane was working the fires in northeastern California, where my daughter-in-law was also headed that afternoon. She is now on the Park Fire as a Public Information Officer.

Cal Fire’s C-130 also landed to refill. This plane doesn’t carry as much retardant but is more maneuverable for many situations. It can also land at many more airports than the DC-10s, which need longer runways.

Retardant (mostly fertilizer) in large bags is mixed into a slurry (85% water) and then piped to where the planes are loaded. This article describes the components of fire retardant and how it is used.

This OV-10 is the favorite plane of Matt’s friend who was showing us around. These were originally military planes used in Vietnam with some being used more recently. This is used as a spotter plane and for directing air traffic as Matt does in the helicopter. This plane is fast enough to also be a lead plane for the retardant drops.

This is a narrow plane and reminded me of the Cobra helicopter Matt was in until they were retired a few years ago. The pilot is up front and the fire personnel sits in back.

We saw the hangars where CalFire houses and repairs aircraft. These are just a couple of the Bell helicopters. There were several hangars but I already have too many photos in this post.

This helicopter was called a Blackhawk when used by the military but is now set up for civilian use and CalFire calls it a Firehawik.

Our last stop was an old air traffic control tower, shown in the photos of the DC-10 taxiing and taking off, that Matt’s friend uses as his office. Here is his view.

This was an extraordinary tour and I appreciate the time spent by Matt and his CalFire friend in showing us around.

We Interrupt This Blog…

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Robin

…for breaking news. I’ve been writing about the trip to Texas and I think I have four days left. But tonight there are some spectacular photos of a fire that started this afternoon in the hills above Lake Berryessa. I shouldn’t even be doing this post because I’m taking sheep to the fair first thing in the morning and I’ve been working for days getting ready for that. I should be going to bed. This is taken from the top of my haystack and is the view to the west. Lake Berryessa is in those hills and the map on my phone says 20 miles, but that is by road. Maybe it’s 10-12 miles as the crow flies. The fire started about 2:30 and this photo was about 6:00 this evening. To the north was a dense cloud of smoke. We have had a south wind all day so the smoke didn’t affect us but it is over Sacramento. All of these photos are with my iPhone. This is using the Pano app. I was on my way out to mow two paddocks of the pasture–they needed to be done before I spent the next four days at the fair. So the photos with the barn to the right are from the tractor. I must have taken a couple dozen photos. Every time I turned and drove north the scene seemed to change. This was about 7 p.m. About the time I finished mowing my son, who is on a USFS hotshot crew got home (next door) for his days off. Within an hour his boss called him back to Pollock Pines (about an hour and a half) because his crew will be leaving at 5 a.m. to work on this fire. Last I heard it was 4000 acres.