YARNELL - One of the most
visible elements of wildland firefighting is air support, and while the
big air tankers work out of airports, helicopters can be based just
about anywhere they can land.
At the Yarnell helibase, a large,
flat field, helicopters stand by, awaiting calls to service. Thursday,
four were in place: two firefighting helicopters from California and
Montana; one multi-role aircraft from Minnesota that, so far, has been
used for reconnaissance on this fire, and the Department of Public
Safety's Ranger 52, standing by for emergency medical evacuations.
Dumping
water on a fire is not easy, noted pilot Art Sanford. "Movement of the
wind, going from a headwind to a tailwind when we have a heavy load,"
can be treacherous. "Helicopters are designed to fly into the wind... a
strong wind can really complicate issues," he said.
"If the wind
was 20 miles an hour but it gusts to 35, that would make it hard for a
helicopter with a bucket," Mike Pelletier from the Minnesota Department
of Natural Resources said.
A pilot since 1969, Sanford is from
Minnesota and most recently worked a fire in Utah with his crew of
firefighters. He said that, in the hot weather and high altitude of
Arizona's mountains, carrying the heavy load of water in their "bass
bucket" is a challenge. "You do things slower, you try to plan ahead
more, and you try to plan your maneuvers so that you don't get to the
point that, all of a sudden, you need to pull a lot of power - because
you may not have it," he said.
"About 80 gallons would be a maximum water load in the heat of the day," Sanford added.
Sanford's
crew can dump water, deliver cargo by net where there's no room to
land, hauling people to the scene, or take the incident command staff up
for a look at the fire, Pelletier said.
One aircrew that's happy
not to be needed is the Ranger 52 crew. Their job is to airlift out
injured firefighters, which they have not yet had to do.
The
pilot and two medics are standing by, waiting for a call they hope will
not come. If it does, Officer/Paramedic Darren Winters, the crew has
experience in emergency extraction, from one-skid landings on rock faces
to long-line rescues where there's no room to land at all.
"Things have been going okay for us on this fire," Winters said.
Source: http://www.dcourier.com
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