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Mit Helikoptern gegen den Waldbrand

Mit Helikoptern gegen den Waldbrand

21 November 2011

Germany — Flammen, Rauch und dröhnende Hubschrauber: Seit dem frühen Morgen haben Rettungskräfte am Montag versucht, den Brand eines Bergwaldes in Lenggries einzudämmen. Vier Hubschrauber überflogen immer wieder das Gelände entlang des Sylvenstein-Stausees und leerten ihre Wassertanks, um eine Ausbreitung des Feuers zu verhindern.

Eine schwierige Aufgabe: “Es sind unzählige Glutnester über den ganzen Berg verteilt”, sagte der Katastrophenschutz-Experte Alexander Bauer vom Landratsamt Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen. Das Feuer war Sonntag an der Südflanke des rund 1200 Meter hohen Schwarzbergs ausgebrochen.

Seitdem hatte es sich von drei auf acht Hektar ausgeweitet. Zur Ursache konnten die Rettungskräfte noch nichts sagen. “Es ist natürlich seit Wochen sehr trocken”, so Bauer. In der Nacht schlugen meterhohe Flammen in den Himmel. 150 Feuerwehrleute mit 30 Löschfahrzeugen konnten nichts machen. “Sie mussten tatenlos zusehen, wie der Berg brennt”, beschrieb der Experte. Denn Löscharbeiten im Dunkeln wären in dem unwegsamen Gelände zu gefährlich gewesen.

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin

Calif. ranch pays $17M for fight of 2007 wildfire

Calif. ranch pays $17M for fight of 2007 wildfire

15 November 2011

published by http://www.mercurynews.com

USA — FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) The devastating Texas wildfire season reaches the one-year mark on Tuesday, and there appears to be no end in sight as officials brace for large blazes that could ignite anywhere across the drought-stricken state.

Despite a recent lull in fire activity statewide, the threat remains in parts of Texas, so the Texas Forest Service is not declaring an end to the wildfire season that started Nov. 15, 2010.

“This year is a little harder to call (for an ending point) because we’re still picking up some fire calls daily,” said Tom Spencer, director of the Texas Forest Service’s predictive services department. And officials are expecting some large fires this winter and next spring because of dead trees and pastures across the bone-dry state, he said.

The exact starting and ending dates of wildfire seasons vary each year and do not affect the state fire agency’s resources or finances, said agency spokeswoman April Saginor.

Another devastating season ran more than a year, from April 2005 through September 2006, when blazes charred about 2 million acres, left 12 people dead and destroyed more than 400 homes. But the 2008 and 2009 seasons each lasted less than a calendar year, according to Texas Forest Service records.

In the past year, wildfires statewide have destroyed nearly 4 million acres and more than 2,900 homes, killing 10 people.

Out-of-control blazes charred land in every corner of the state, including some southeastern towns where rainfall and humidity usually dilute such threats. This spring, various firefighting crews battled what turned out to be seven of the 10 largest wildfires in state history.

One was a 315,000-acre blaze in three West Texas counties that narrowly missed the Fort Davis Historic Site, a frontier Army cavalry fort, and the McDonald Observatory, a top astronomical research facility.

Fires twice scorched Possum Kingdom Lake, a picturesque community 75 miles west of Fort Worth, destroying about 160 homes in April and another 40 homes four months later. After fires burned throughout the summer across parts of mostly rural Texas, a Labor Day weekend wildfire destroyed more than 1,500 homes in Bastrop County.

The past 12-month period has been unusually active overall, so it’s unclear how long the wildfire season will drag on, Spencer said. September 2010 to 2011 was the driest 12 months on record in the state, and weather experts say the historic dry spell will grip Texas well into 2012.

“If there is a silver lining, it’s that because of the drought, we didn’t grow a lot of new grass,” Spencer said. “But the drought is a concern so as long as we have drought, the fire potential is going to be elevated.”

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin

Wildfire aviation news

Wildfire aviation news

08 November 2011

published by www.examiner.com

USA — SEAT dumps retardant to avoid crash twice

A single engine air tanker (SEAT) on two occasions in August had to dump part of its retardant load in order to avoid crashing. According to an article in the Missoulian, on August 27 an Air Tractor 802 was attempting to take off from the Ravalli County Airport at Hamilton, Montana (map) when it became evident that it was too heavy to lift off the runway. The pilot released 75 gallons of retardant on the last 75 feet of the runway, which lightened the aircraft enough to allow it to take off. The Hamilton Fire Department rinsed the retardant off the runway.

On August 30 an Air Tractor 802 had cleared the runway but was in a negative rate of climb, said Dean Bitterman, forest aviation officer for the Bitterroot National Forest. It was not going to make it over a hill, so pilot Jackie Shadowens released 75 gallons of retardant just north of the runway into grass and wetlands.

The SEAT can hold about 800 gallons of retardant, but had been downloaded by 20% to account for density altitude, which is affected by higher temperatures and altitude.

USFS extends air tanker availability to account for longer fire seasons

This winter for the first time in recent history, the U.S. Forest Service will have a large air tanker on contract through the winter. Butch Weedon reports that Neptune Aviation will have one of their large air tankers, probably a P2V, on contract through the 2011-2012 winter months. In addition, three air tankers will come on earlier next year than usual, on March 1, because the USFS expects the 2012 fire season to start early, as was the case this year.

Neptune still has three air tankers deployed in Texas. One P2V is in Austin and another is at Longview, where their new BAe-146 jet powered air tanker has been stationed for several weeks.

Columbia Helicopters has had one of its twin-rotor Columbia 107 helicopters on extended duty in east Texas, out of Huntsville, since March, under a State contract. Normally that helicopter would end its season in September, but they expect it to remain there until the end of the year, due to the high fire danger.

Other air tankers in Texas

The DC-10 very large air tanker was released from its Texas assignment around October 28, along with three Convair 580 air tankers from Canada.

The Rand air tanker report

The U.S. Forest Service is still not interested in offering exclusive use contracts for very large air tankers (VLAT) that carry 11,600 to 20,000 gallons, which is 6 to 11 times more retardant than the largest large air tankers with a capacity of 1,800 to 3,000 gallons. When the Rand Corporation conducted the air tanker study for the USFS, they were instructed by the USFS to not even consider VLATs. Here is a quote from a July, 2010 draft of the 104-page report which has still not been released to the public:

At Forest Service direction, we did not examine smaller SEATs that carry 800-900 gallons of retardant nor larger VLATs that carry 12,000-20,000 gallons of retardant.

The USFS paid Rand $840,092 for the report.

The draft version of the report recommends 11 to 28 3,000-gallon air tankers, and 14 to 20 2,700-gallon helicopters depending on how they are based, their mobility, and the prescience of dispatchers to be able to predict where fires will start. But those are only for initial attack. If the USFS plans to use the aircraft on large fires, they will need more, but the report did not provide a recommendation for that contingency. This year there were 11 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts.

Few people would recommend that air tankers not be used on large fires. And of course they are used routinely and extensively on large fires. For example, on the 6,200-acre Fourmile Canyon fire that burned west of Boulder, Colorado in September, air tankers dropped 86 loads of retardant over a four day period. Attached is a map showing the locations of most, but not all, of the retardant drops by large air tankers on that fire.

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin