Yesterday, my division put together a small event for employees and their families showcasing some of the aircrafts used in firefighting (forest fires) operations in the Province. Some of you might appreciate the pics below.
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Great pics! Fingers crossed it wonât be a horribly bad fire season given the long range forecast.
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Thanks for showing, François! I like the Canadair water bomber! Here in Europe I know only the yellow ones like they have them in France, Italy or Croatia.
Yes, the forest fire season has already started here in Germany. The biggest is in the Northeast on a former training area (Wehrmacht, NVA, Bundeswehr) with ammo still in the soil âŠ
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Thanks Evan. Yes, letâs hope for a quiet fire season, although Iâm doubtful, especially with a strong El Nino by the end of the summerâŠ
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Youâre welcome, Torsten.
We do have the yellow ones as well, but this one (CL415) is owned by the province and has a different livery. Not visible on the pictures is Bertie Beaver on the vertical stabilizer at the back; Bertie is the mascot of Alberta Wildfire and the Forestry Division, and was designed by Walt Disney Studios in 1958. He is our Albertan equivalent of Smokey Bear.
Fire season here starts March 1st, but we did have some small fires over the winter in dryer parts of the province (we also have overwintering fires, aka âzombie firesâ). We had snow far into this spring, which is great since May is our big month for fire disasters (this week is the 10th anniversary of the Horse River fire in Fort McMurray, largest evacuation in Canada with 90,000 people).
Germany, and northern Europe overall, is increasingly dealing with forest fires. You guys in Germany use Super Pumas for firefighting, right?
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The worst forest fires ravage every year around the Mediterranean Sea from Portugal to Turkey, always with a sad loss of lives.
In Germany the fire fighters usually can control the fires. But sometimes, when they get out of control (okay, not near as big as in Canada) every equipment which is available is most welcome. So when helicopters are in use they are usually the old Bundeswehr battle horse Sikorsky CH-53 and Pumas from the Bundespolizei. On the ground the fires are also fought with water throwers from the police and ARV tanks from the Bundeswehr. Sometimes even fire fighters from an airport (like the Berlin Airport BER) with their trucks help out.
Here are a few vids from past years. It looks the same nearly every year. Sorry, all in german, but the pictures speak for themself. And ignore the ads âŠ
One of the worst we had in the past was 2019 north of Berlin, with fire fighters, police and Bundeswehr units from all over Germany were needed.
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Danke schön Torsten! (Pretty much the extent of my German, with Ein bier bitte).
Those videos are good sources of inspiration for people like me who donât built military stuff but would consider it in civilian settings (I wouldnât mind building the Leopard ARV from Takom). Revell also released a 1/32 Bundespolizei Cougar a long time ago.
I had the chance to go in a CH53 while grounded; a beast! Pumas and Cougars as well; much more humble, but still pretty cool.
I gave a talk about wildfires to folks in Scotland last year: my slide showing that our largest recorded fire (Chinchaga, 1950) would have covered 1/5 of their country shocked the crowd.
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My son used to fly drones for Pegasus Imagery, back when they were a start-up. They were trying to get the province to buy into using drones for imaging whereas they could get lower and closer to events. As well the operating costs are quite a bit lower than fixed wing and helos.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/pegasus-imagery-1.6123463
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Thanks Barney! We do use drones nowadays for many different needs around forest management, including fire. And it keeps growing!
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