GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) – In the western United States, people are no strangers to wildfires. If a wildfire is flares up, you can bet that aerial firefighters aren’t far behind.
Some of those firefighters based in Mesa County are part of the Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Unit. The base, located at the Grand Junction Regional Airport, houses large air tankers, small, single-engine drop planes, lead planes, air attack planes and smoke jumper planes. It’s a common site to see the planes take to the skies once wildfire season begins. But before these planes get airborne though, a lot of work has to happen first. All that begins with the men and women at the U.I.F.M. The folks at dispatch get the call.
“Dispatch disseminates that order, they verify all the information,” said Adam Goeden, airtanker base manager. “There’s a lot of operations and people in the background that make all that happen.”
In Goeden’s role as airtanker base manager, he coordinates al the groups on the ramp, parking tenders, rent managers and several others, who are all dealing with information about the aircrafts coming and going.
Read more on this story at NBC 11 News
