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AirForceTimes.com
October 25, 2007 By Seamus O'Connor and Gidget Fuentes, Staff writers
As widespread wildfires ravaged parts of Southern California the week of Oct. 22, forcing a million people to flee their homes, all six of the Air Force’s Military Airborne Fire Fighting System units were engaged in the battle. Their first missions were flown Oct. 24.
Several thousand homes and hundreds of other structures may be lost, and official death counts and damage estimates were yet to be determined.
Air Force Reserve tankers carried water to the inferno, and other military units joined state and local firefighting efforts, assisted at a dozen evacuation sites and guarded neighborhoods devastated by the fires.
By press time, the Air Force and its reserve components had committed the following assets to firefighting and evacuation operations:
*North Carolina Air National Guard: About 50 airmen and four C-130s, two MAFFS-equipped, deployed from the 145th Airlift Wing.
*Pope Air Force Base, N.C.: Fifteen airmen with the 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron deployed to arrange flights for hospital and nursing home patients to other hospitals.
*Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.: An eight-person Air Component Coordination Element team with 1st Air Force deployed to coordinate all Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units helping with firefighting efforts.
*Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.: Two MAFFS-equipped C-130s deployed from the Air Force Reserve’s 302nd Airlfit Wing.
*Wyoming National Guard: Two MAFFS-equipped C-130s deployed from the 153rd Airlift Wing.
*California Air National Guard: About 45 airmen were ordered — along with a total 1,500 California Guardsmen — to assist with evacuations.
Fire officials had long feared that the conditions — strong winds and hurricane gusts, low humidity, high heat and tinder-dry ground — would fuel massive wildfires in the region. On Oct. 21 and 22, strong Santa Ana-winds arrived as predicted, whipping power lines in some areas and stoking wildfires that burned across scrubby, chaparral-covered hills and bone-dry canyons, threatening suburban neighborhoods.
Through the week, the wildfires burned a half-million acres scattered across San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Ventura counties and closed several freeways, including Interstates 5 and 15, two key north-south highways in the region.
In San Diego County, home to more than 110,000 active-duty military service members, a dozen fires burned for several days as authorities ordered mandatory evacuations and relief organizations scrambled to establish aid centers to help displaced residents.
The wildfires spared most military installations and downtown San Diego, home to several naval bases.
But several blazes flared up Oct. 24 in north San Diego County, home to Camp Pendleton, the Marines’ large amphibious training base. Ground fire crews and Marine Corps helicopters battled the 6,000-plus-acre Horno fire on base as hundreds of other Marines, sailors and their families were evacuated.
Throughout most of the county, the air, thick with smoke, obscured bright blue skies. Gritty ash covered cars, roads and patios, forcing authorities to close schools and military officials to limit outdoor training.
A sort of family reunion
Whenever and wherever wildfires strike in America, six C-130 crews can count on a sort of family reunion.
Those crews operate the Air Force’s only MAFFS. The six systems are loaded into C-130s, which fly low over fires to drop their 3,000-gallon payload of flame retardant.
Three units operate two MAFFS each. They are: the Air Force Reserve’s 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; the Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, and the 153rd Airlift Wing at Cheyenne Municipal Airport in Wyoming.
Lt. Col. Brian Ratchford, an aircraft commander with the 145th, told Air Force Times that flying MAFFS missions is “the most challenging mission we do, as far as demanding the most out of your piloting skills.”
A typical mission involves one or more MAFFS planes, a lead plane, an air attack plane to direct traffic and also firefighting ground crews. The MAFFS planes will follow the lead, drawing “lines” of retardant to restrict the fire and allow ground crews to direct the flames away from certain areas.
MAFFS crews are buffeted by heat gusts, wind and smoke, and must drop their payload while flying between 150 and 200 feet above the ground.
“The thicker [the retardant] is when it hits the ground, the better it works,” Ratchford said.
Another major danger is flying debris created by disintegrating trees.
“You’ll see things fly by the airplane that you just can’t believe would ever get in the sky — bits and pieces of trees as big around as your leg,” Ratchford said. “If you fly into dark smoke, that’s really bad because the updraft can tear your airplane up, not to mention the stuff that’s flying up in it.”
But the rewards of flying the MAFFS outweigh the risks, Ratchford said. Beyond the thrill of a challenge, the MAFFS missions bring together a small community whose members meet repeatedly at training and wildfire missions.
“Occasionally you’ll have a guy retire who did it for 25 years, was at every training and every fire you can remember,” Ratchford said. “Then there’s the familiar faces of MAFFS mechanics — everybody knows Hoot and Bill, those two guys are fixtures.
It’s “sort of like a family atmosphere when we get together.”
October 25, 2007 By Seamus O'Connor and Gidget Fuentes, Staff writers
As widespread wildfires ravaged parts of Southern California the week of Oct. 22, forcing a million people to flee their homes, all six of the Air Force’s Military Airborne Fire Fighting System units were engaged in the battle. Their first missions were flown Oct. 24.
Several thousand homes and hundreds of other structures may be lost, and official death counts and damage estimates were yet to be determined.
Air Force Reserve tankers carried water to the inferno, and other military units joined state and local firefighting efforts, assisted at a dozen evacuation sites and guarded neighborhoods devastated by the fires.
By press time, the Air Force and its reserve components had committed the following assets to firefighting and evacuation operations:
*North Carolina Air National Guard: About 50 airmen and four C-130s, two MAFFS-equipped, deployed from the 145th Airlift Wing.
*Pope Air Force Base, N.C.: Fifteen airmen with the 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron deployed to arrange flights for hospital and nursing home patients to other hospitals.
*Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.: An eight-person Air Component Coordination Element team with 1st Air Force deployed to coordinate all Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units helping with firefighting efforts.
*Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.: Two MAFFS-equipped C-130s deployed from the Air Force Reserve’s 302nd Airlfit Wing.
*Wyoming National Guard: Two MAFFS-equipped C-130s deployed from the 153rd Airlift Wing.
*California Air National Guard: About 45 airmen were ordered — along with a total 1,500 California Guardsmen — to assist with evacuations.
Fire officials had long feared that the conditions — strong winds and hurricane gusts, low humidity, high heat and tinder-dry ground — would fuel massive wildfires in the region. On Oct. 21 and 22, strong Santa Ana-winds arrived as predicted, whipping power lines in some areas and stoking wildfires that burned across scrubby, chaparral-covered hills and bone-dry canyons, threatening suburban neighborhoods.
Through the week, the wildfires burned a half-million acres scattered across San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Ventura counties and closed several freeways, including Interstates 5 and 15, two key north-south highways in the region.
In San Diego County, home to more than 110,000 active-duty military service members, a dozen fires burned for several days as authorities ordered mandatory evacuations and relief organizations scrambled to establish aid centers to help displaced residents.
The wildfires spared most military installations and downtown San Diego, home to several naval bases.
But several blazes flared up Oct. 24 in north San Diego County, home to Camp Pendleton, the Marines’ large amphibious training base. Ground fire crews and Marine Corps helicopters battled the 6,000-plus-acre Horno fire on base as hundreds of other Marines, sailors and their families were evacuated.
Throughout most of the county, the air, thick with smoke, obscured bright blue skies. Gritty ash covered cars, roads and patios, forcing authorities to close schools and military officials to limit outdoor training.
A sort of family reunion
Whenever and wherever wildfires strike in America, six C-130 crews can count on a sort of family reunion.
Those crews operate the Air Force’s only MAFFS. The six systems are loaded into C-130s, which fly low over fires to drop their 3,000-gallon payload of flame retardant.
Three units operate two MAFFS each. They are: the Air Force Reserve’s 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; the Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, and the 153rd Airlift Wing at Cheyenne Municipal Airport in Wyoming.
Lt. Col. Brian Ratchford, an aircraft commander with the 145th, told Air Force Times that flying MAFFS missions is “the most challenging mission we do, as far as demanding the most out of your piloting skills.”
A typical mission involves one or more MAFFS planes, a lead plane, an air attack plane to direct traffic and also firefighting ground crews. The MAFFS planes will follow the lead, drawing “lines” of retardant to restrict the fire and allow ground crews to direct the flames away from certain areas.
MAFFS crews are buffeted by heat gusts, wind and smoke, and must drop their payload while flying between 150 and 200 feet above the ground.
“The thicker [the retardant] is when it hits the ground, the better it works,” Ratchford said.
Another major danger is flying debris created by disintegrating trees.
“You’ll see things fly by the airplane that you just can’t believe would ever get in the sky — bits and pieces of trees as big around as your leg,” Ratchford said. “If you fly into dark smoke, that’s really bad because the updraft can tear your airplane up, not to mention the stuff that’s flying up in it.”
But the rewards of flying the MAFFS outweigh the risks, Ratchford said. Beyond the thrill of a challenge, the MAFFS missions bring together a small community whose members meet repeatedly at training and wildfire missions.
“Occasionally you’ll have a guy retire who did it for 25 years, was at every training and every fire you can remember,” Ratchford said. “Then there’s the familiar faces of MAFFS mechanics — everybody knows Hoot and Bill, those two guys are fixtures.
It’s “sort of like a family atmosphere when we get together.”