2011 Aerial Firefighting Articles

Emergency Services >> Aerial Firefighting: Burning Tree Wildfire, CO, USA The battle against the Indian Gulch Fire continued since last week's update. The affected area has grown to 1502 acres but firefighters have begun to contain the blaze. Paul Filmer reports on the latest wildfire situation in Colorado.

The Rampart Helicopter Services UH-1H continued to fly as as it had on previous days and was joined by a Type One helicopter, an SH-3H belonging to Croman Helicopters based out of Oregon, which was flown up from Texas to assist. The two AT-502 SEATs remained on standby and both flew on Monday morning.

Wednesday saw just the UH-1H and SH-3H fly, but the rugged terrain, coupled with the lack of roads, saw all my attempts at photography thwarted. Most of the helicopters' work concentrated on the steep sides of the canyon that borders US6, and after a hike along Lookout Mountain, I eventually managed some passable shots.

On Thursday I gained access to the reservoir that the SH-3H had been dipping in the previous days, but after a couple of hours it became evident that no aerial assets were now needed to fight the fire. The firefighters on the ground ended up performing controlled burns from the base of US6 up the canyon sides as they had been unable to halt the slow progress of the fire down the steep slopes with the helicopter operations and the terrain was far too steep for the teams on the ground.

In the meantime, late on Thursday afternoon, a new fire broke out in Douglas County. The Burning Tree Fire started on a four acre plot of land and very quickly, over just a few short hours, spread across 1600 acres to the north of Franktown. Fueled by tinder dry grassland and 40mph winds it necessitated the evacuation of approximately 8,500 people; the majority being from the Pinery sub-division.

Douglas County jumped on this fire very quickly and called upon ten other fire districts to help out. The nearby based UH-1H was again on scene first, with the Crowman SH-3H and both SEATs then arriving in quick succession. A cold front that was passing through the area caused high wind speeds and quick changes in its direction. While I was on scene we had gusty winds, snow, rain and sunshine followed by an eerie calm as the front passed through.

The fire was quickly brought under control due to the quick response of firefighters and by the following morning it was 100% contained. The Lead Aircraft was tasked to look at another fire in the town of Karval in Lincoln County where an eight square mile blaze was in progress. This had resulted in the avacuation of the whole town, but it was too late in the day for aircraft operations to react due to the onset of darkness.

This already makes a total of 70 reported wildfires this year in Colorado, according to stats from the National Interagency Fire Centre, of which three have required aerial support. This could be a devastating year as our snow and rainfall has been well below average.

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