After a decade and a half of aerial firefighting, I have seen many changes in both policy and tactics. When I first started flying Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) fire managers were often reluctant to dispatch aerial resources to a reported smoke or fire until confirmation was received from someone on the ground.
Over the last years, that policy has changed so that now the aircraft are the first units dispatched to a smoke report. Most of the time, it turns out to be a fire but sometimes it is only a dust devil or blowing debris.
This aggressive approach has resulted in many small fires being contained before they have time to grow. Two or three SEATs can easily encircle a twenty to thirty-acre fire with retardant buying time for ground resources to arrive on scene and extinguish it. In the long run, this tactic saves money because it prevents many fires from growing into the extended attack stage that can be excessively expensive.
Alaska has had one of the most active fire seasons in its history. Numerous resources from the lower forty-eight states have been sent up to assist, but the size of the state and overwhelming number of fires has won out over most suppression efforts. Of the approximate six million acres that have burned in the U.S. this year more than five million were in Alaska.
This points to the fact that the rest of the country, besides California and the Pacific Northwest, has had a relatively slow fire season. The Southwest, Great Basin and Rocky Mountain states have all had well below normal activity. Once again, California is the big newsmaker.
Its extended drought has dried the fuels to the point they carry fire through the most aggressive suppression tactics. All available next generation air tankers are now on contract and proving themselves very well.
Their high airspeed capability make them available to a much larger area in less time. The United States Forest Service has leased two Cessna Citation jets to serve as lead planes because the older Beechcraft King Airs were not fast enough to keep up with them. Some new air tankers are required to have a lead plane. With King Air lead planes, tankers were having to circle and wait.
I have worked with the CJs on several fires and they are very agile and can really slow down for the slower SEATs. In a few years, all Legacy Tankers will be phased out and the U.S. will have an all jet fleet. I recently flew on a fire in Oregon that had seventeen SEATs, three heavy air tankers, five helicopters, one air attack and one lead plane operating in the Fire Traffic Area at the same time! Operations went smooth and safe.
The job got done. This is a testament to the training aircrews receive recurrently. In Sacramento, we train together just as if we were on a fire. It is a great program and only gets better every time I return for currency training.
As I write this, the 2015 fire season is in full swing. It has been a strange one to date. The national preparedness level has yet to reach the highest level of five. It is only at four because of the activity in California and the Pacific Northwest. I hope you have a safe and prosperous remainder of the season and that I meet you in the mountains one day.
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