The recent wild fire in the West Branch Valley of the Chilcotin resulted in a major loss of timber in the Eniyud community forest as well as some personal losses to people living in the immediate vicinity of the fire.
A post-fire analysis will be critical to see what changes in firefighting approaches are available to minimize the impact of future fires in the rugged terrain of our timber land base.
One of the most informative articles I came across was by Michael Doran in the September 2022 Vertical article entitled “Helicopter pilots discuss different approaches to aerial firefighting around the world.”
Most of the fires in Australia and Greece can be put out in the first two hours, because typically they call for a chopper at the very beginning of the fire.
In the U.S., the forest services manage fires a little bit more, so you may not jump on it as quick.
In California the Air Crane is often used which can fill its 2,500-gallon tanks in around 40 seconds, either from hover or skimming the ocean at 25 to 40 knots. It can be emptied in seconds so for safety reasons the pilot coordinates directly with the local incident commanders on the ground.
A different approach is employed in Canada where Rapattack teams are used as first responders in hard to access terrain. Rapattack teams consist of three to four people per crew, who rappel out the helicopter with the aim of suppressing the fire before it gains a large foothold.
British Columbia Wildfire uses Rapattack teams, and Jeremy Neufeld is the supervisor for the provincial Rapattack program. He says that when the aircraft arrives on scene, which is usually in densely wooded areas, the crew rappel out, their gear is lowered, and the team is ready to go in around five minutes. Part of their gear is a flexible bag used as a water tank, which is filled from the hovering helicopter’s belly tank via a hose. Within two minutes the crew has 300 gallons of water that they use to put the fire out, and the helicopter can then drop more water on the fire and keep it small until they are ready. He said within five minutes, the helicopter can be putting water on the fire.
A second article in Vertical by Lisa Gordon is an interview with Peter Murray, president of Talon Helicopters in Richmond, B.C. who described one of their unique machines.
Talon offers a unique capability as the owner of the only Transport Canada-approved night vision goggle (NVG) night fire attack medium helicopter. Its Airbus AS365 N2 Dauphin carries a Simplex 204-US gallon (901-litre) belly tank. In late June, Talon’s Dauphin and an AS350 B2 AStar were in the field fighting fires.
“We’ve been involved with night fire suppression on the Dauphin for a number of years and we are regularly providing that service now,” said Murray.
Another option is to look at using drones to detect hot spots and deliver retardant on fires at night which has often lower winds and temperatures. While the retardant deliverance is in the development stages there are some promising developments taking place in a wide variety of uses for unmanned air vehicles.
READ MORE: Eniyud Community Forest becomes limited partnership
READ MORE: FOREST INK: Multipurpose wildfire guards Part 1
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