The Drop Ryan Mason

Ryan Mason ryan@aerialfiremag.com

As we near (hopefully) a wind down in the U.S. fire season and the beginning of the Australian fire season, we have learned that we have some severe deficiencies in our firefighting approaches worldwide.

That is not to say that local, state, and national firefighting approaches are not doing the best that they can. Still, we have learned from the horrendous fire season of 2019/2020 in Australia that best-laid plans can quickly turn pear-shaped by an early onset to a fire season that overlaps from one nation to the next.

The Australian fire season typically intensifies as the Australian summer heat intensifies in November and December. Still, as we saw with the last fire season in Australia when freak conditions cause widespread fires that started as early as October last year and continued almost unabated through the following January, this leaves countries like Australia on the back foot.

Operators that move resources around the world that had already committed resources to flare-ups in Chile and Bolivia as fires in Australia began to intensify, while LAT’s and large helicopters like Coulson’s CH-47 were elsewhere, causing an international scramble for assets.

The companies that supply assets are not at fault, quite the opposite, nor can we level any responsibility at the feet of any state, local, or federal body that was already utilizing fleets of aircraft to fight their fires. As an industry, we need to look at if we, on a global scale, have enough assets to go around.

Companies like Coulson Aviation have seen the writing on the wall, having just opened up an Australian headquarters and installing an Australian CEO on October 5th, 2020, to supply not only imported assets but also to manage a growing local fleet of aircraft are available year-round. Through a partnership with Kestrel Aviation, Erickson Air Crane moved assets to and from Australia, the first of which landed in Australia only days ago. Gypsy Lady arrived aboard an AN-124 getting an early start on availability for fires in the country. In our cover story, last issue, Kestrel’s founder Ray Cronin also detailed another partnership with Firehawk Helicopters, bringing additional UH-60s to augment the company’s already sizeable fleet of medium twin helicopters.

On the flip side of that coin, McDermott Aviation, a relative newcomer to providing international assets, currently has a crew in Greece with a Bell 214, providing augmentation of their existing firefighting aircraft in what is likely to be a growing global presence for the company.

With aircraft continually working around the world, moving from country to country, it is evident to many that although on a good season, there are enough aircraft to go around.

However, the last fire season in Australia has taught the industry that there needs to be more aircraft available when situations get dire. Otherwise, the consequences for each area in need become more severe as evidenced by the substantial flare ups in California and Oregon this year, in addition to the extreme conditions that flared the massive Australian outbreaks this season.

While there may be no perfect solution, the industry may, in the future, need to take a truly global approach to firefighting. Ensuring that there are adequate resources for all when conditions stretch everyone involved in the worldwide fight to protect life and property from the air.