http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/col ... 50706.htmlColorado wildfires: C-130 air tankers called in for "surge capability"
Posted: 06/26/2012 12:12:13 AM MDT
Updated: 06/26/2012 05:18:59 AM MDT
By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post
A U.S. Air Force C-130 tanker flies over the Waldo Canyon fire west of Colorado Springs on Monday. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)
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The battle to contain devastating wildfires across Colorado reached a new and more aggressive stage Monday as C-130 military tankers joined the fight to bombard the Waldo Canyon blaze with thousands of gallons of fire retardant.
Four of the C-130 aircraft, two from the 302nd Airlift Wing of the U.S. Air Force Reserve at Peterson Air Force Base and two from the 153rd Airlift Wing of the Wyoming Air National Guard in Cheyenne, took to the skies with 3,000 gallons of fire retardant in each of their bellies.
The planes can drop their huge payloads in less than five seconds and can be refilled in 15 minutes.
There are only eight such C-130s, plus one spare, in all of the United States that can be fitted with the
Wildfire Extras
View a map of the wildfires across Colorado on June 23.
View a slideshow of the High Park fire.
View reader-submitted images of the High Park fire.
View a slideshow of the Woodland Heights fire near Estes Park.
View a slideshow of the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs.
Submit your wildfire photos and videos.
FEMA's advice on how to survive a wildfire.
Real-time map showing social media reactions to the fire.
Perimeter map of the High Park Fire perimeter.
Explore: an interactive timeline of Colorado wildfires.
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special firefighting equipment, and half the fleet is now in Colorado.
Each plane costs $6,600 per flight hour, according to a U.S. Forest Service report.
On Monday, each tanker made one flight on the Waldo Canyon fire, now estimated at 4,500 acres and 5 percent contained. The fire has not burned any structures, but it is bumping up against the Cedar Heights subdivision. That neighborhood remains under mandatory evacuation, as does Mountain Shadows south of Chuckwagon.
According to Jennifer Jones, a spokeswoman for the service at the National Inter-Agency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, the heavy military aircraft are not used to fight fires until all other existing resources — including private craft — are unavailable.
"The most important criteria — and the only one that is required to be met — is that commercial tankers are committed or not readily available," Jones said.
Jones said that was when the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group, which is composed of federal, state and local officials, decided to bring in the military tankers.
The only other officials who can decide to deploy such C-130s are the governors of California, Wyoming and North Carolina,
where Air National Guard Airlift Wings with the special planes are based. But the governor of Colorado, where the only such C-130s are stationed with an Air Force Reserve unit, has no such authority.
Roxane White, chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper, said state emergency-management authorities notified her just before 7 p.m. Saturday that U.S. Forest Service officials said firefighting efforts needed to reach a new stage.
The aircraft were in the air by 1 p.m. Monday, White said.
"We've asked repeatedly on the fires, 'Are we at a stage where we can request these?' " White said, adding that firefighting officials said that until Saturday, there were still commercial aircraft available.
Jones said a federal agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense governs the use of the big planes.
"Their role is not to be first responders," she said. "Their role is to provide us with a surge capability."
The fires marked the first time any of the aircraft had been used in Colorado this year.
One of the tankers is piloted by reservist Lt. Col. Robert Fairbanks, who has been flying C-130s for 16 years and been on the reserve squad for seven.
"It is more personal being right here in our hometown," Fairbanks said. "It's unfortunate that they need us, but we are always happy to help out."
Incident commander Rich Harvey said good progress was made on the fire Monday.
"Five percent doesn't sound like a lot," he said, "but it's more than zero and we're going in the right direction."
Investigators still have no idea how the fire started. They're seeking any possible leads from the public.
Pike and San Isabel National Forest supervisor Jerri Marr said Waldo Canyon is the No. 1 priority fire in the country.
"It doesn't mean it's more important than the High Park fire near Fort Collins, or others burning throughout the West," Marr said. "It's an assessment based on the complexity of the fire, its movement in multiple directions, the shifting winds and its proximity to residential areas."
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Colorado wildfires: C-130s called in to help
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Lookout – 7 hrs ago
9
People watch as smoke billows from a wildfire west of Colorado Springs, June 23, 2012. (Bryan Oller/AP)
A wildfire that was first spotted on Saturday near Pikes Peak in Colorado has burned more than 4,000 acres and displaced more than 11,000 people, as firefighters—backed by military cargo planes—continue to battle raging blazes throughout the state.
Fueled by dry conditions, high temperatures and hot winds, the Waldo Canyon fire—located about 80 miles south of Denver—"sent a mushroom cloud of smoke nearly 20,000 feet into the air over Colorado Springs near the foot of Pikes Peak," Reuters reported.
According to the Denver Post, four C-130 military aircraft tankers were called in to help battle the blaze, dropping 3,000 gallons of fire retardant on the fire in shifts Monday afternoon. There are only eight such planes in use in the the United States, the paper said.
[Slideshow: Readers' photos from Colorado's wildfires]
More than 11,000 residents were evacuated, though more than half of them were allowed to return to their homes late Monday, leaving 4,800 displaced west of Colorado Springs. To this point, no deaths or injuries have been reported, fire officials say, but firefighters have managed to contain just 5 percent of the fire's perimeter. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The highway leading to Pikes Peak, as well as popular tourist attractions like the cog railway and Garden of the Gods, remain closed. Several trails and a recreation area near the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs were shut down, too.
The wildfire is one of about a dozen burning in Colorado, including the High Park Fire—Colorado's second largest ever—which has scorched more than 83,000 acres, destroyed 248 homes and is blamed for at least one death.
According to MSNBC, the Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized the use of federal funds to fight the Colorado fires.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said more than 2,000 people are battling the fires. Not surprisingly, the state has also issued a ban on fireworks and campfires, according to NPR.
[Slideshow: Colorado wildfire raging out of control]
"We're going to be continuing to have to deal with these fires for weeks to come," U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell told Reuters. "We anticipate it's going to be a long fire season."
Well, here's hoping this will do the job.
