The new challenge of aerial fire extinguishing companies: keep up with demand

While outside control fires threatened thousands of Los Angeles residents earlier this month, companies that fight against hell from the air rushed to send their tank airplanes and water bombers to the area. It was supposed to be out of season.

The Department of Silviculture and Fire Protection of California, or Cal Fire, has more than 60 aircraft extinction planes of fixed and rotor wing, which considers the largest civil fleet of its kind.

But the Federal Government, the states of the United States and countries from Australia to Chile and South Korea hire companies that have their own private fleets of aircraft specially equipped to help control fires.

“I was lucky to have two” aircraft available to help fight the flames, said Joel Kerley, executive director of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The company has a Fleet of four DC-10 aircraft converted, known as large or VLAT tank aircraft.

The forest fire season in the United States usually goes from April to approximately November, when 10 tanker and similar companies have 24 -hour contracts with the United States forest service, a federal agency. In 2023, the US Forest Service extended a 10 -year contract worth up to 7,200 million dollars to 10 tanker and four other suppliers.

Out of those months, suppliers generally call when necessary. And the demand for its services continues to increase throughout the year, these companies claim.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, forest fires are expected to be even more frequent and serious in the 21st century. The United States Environmental Protection Agency said the data seems to show that the area destroyed by forest fires in the United States has increased in the last two decades.

“There are not enough cistern airplanes for all,” said Kerley, former Aviation Director of the Office of Indigenous Affairs, part of the Department of the Interior.

Some countries that have faced serious forest fires in recent years, such as Australia, have been building their own fleets of extinction planes. Kerley said they will need to expand their fleets or companies such as yours will have to grow to meet the growing demand.

Kerley said Palisades and Eaton’s fires were some of the most complicated to fight. Fed by hurricane winds, they razed entire neighborhoods such as Altadena and were some of the worst never occurred in California. They were also a reminder for firefighters, government officials and the public that fires could arise when they are least expected.

These two fires have consumed more than 37,000 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 houses, buildings and other structures, which makes them two of the most destructive forest fires ever occurred in California. According to Cal Fire, at least 28 people died.

Kerley said that days after the new year he was asking his crews of pilots and mechanics to travel to the fires he equated with “the Super Bowl” of response to fire. 10 Tanker aircraft have thrown more than 273,000 fire retardant gallons in the fires of Eaton and Palisades.

Both fires were largely contained on Friday, but companies like Kerley were still on duty while the Hughes fire spread rapidly north of Los Angeles, which caused a new round of evacuations.

Since the devastating Los Angeles fires occurred during what is supposed to be the low season of forest fires in the region, some of the 10 tanker planes were trapped in routine maintenance at the beginning of the battle. And I wasn’t alone.

“We are doing intense winter maintenance in all our planes,” said Sam Davis, executive director of Belgrade, Montana. aerospace bridge, which has a Super Scope fleet manufactured in Canada that collect water while flying over the water and threw it near the fires. They can make several trips on the same flight.

“It was an effort to get the first plane,” Davis said.

In November, Bridger reported record income and profits for his third quarter, saying that “the continuous dry climate in the west of the USA. He kept several planes operating until November.” It increased its income estimates for the year to 95 million dollars from an anterior range of between 70 and 86 million dollars.

Growing new floats of new airplanes is not easy or fast.

Kevin McCullough, president of Aer Air, who also supplies tank aircraft, sent some of its MD-87 to Los Angeles fires. He said he can have been around a plane into a tank truck to combat fires.

“It’s not like throwing a tank and doing this,” he said. “You are completely modifying the plane and turning it into a bomber.”

McCullough said that the development of these cistern aircraft was carried out privately, hoping that there would be government contracts for their services, but “there were never guarantees.”

Especially trained pilots throw water or fire retardant from the air to help firefighters on land. The heavy shiny red fire retardant generally drops in front of the fire, blocking the path of the flames.

“The challenge of throwing water or retarding is that when these fires explode, most of the time it does not happen in a flat area and not in one of those days of blue sky and quiet wind,” said Paul Petersen, executive director of United Aerial Fire Association.

Some of these pilots come from military environments, while others come from passenger airlines, Kerley said 10 tanker. The ages of aerial fire extinction pilots cover decades. It has almost 30 employees.

Eight mechanics are assigned to each of the DC-10 of the company.

“It is a strange situation in terms of races,” Kerley said.

There are also natural forces to deal with: the fierce winds of Santa Ana, who blew with a force of Hurricane in early January, helped spread the fires in the Los Angeles area and also left some planes on the ground at the beginning of their missions Aerials

The last DC-10 plane left the McDonnell Douglas production line in the nearby Long Beach, California, almost four decades ago, but 10 Tanker aircraft have been re-echipped to transport and accurately launch 9,500 fire retardant gallons.

Water shovels such as those used by Bridger Aerospace are manufactured by Havilland Aircraft in Canada and are also increasingly sought after. These special aircraft can collect 1,600 gallons of nearby water bodies.

And some governments are reinforcing their fleets by commissioning the newest model of the plane, which is in development.

From Havilland, based in Calgary, he said last August that he had obtained orders for countries of the European Union for the new generation of the plane, the DHC-515, which he hopes that he enters operations in 2028.

The previous generations of SCOpers were built for the first time in the 1970s. The new generation of Havilland plans to improve things such as the air conditioning of the cabin for high temperatures, the control of water droplets and anticorrosion, which helps Avoid damage to salt water.

“Given the age of airplanes and the impact of climate change, demand will simply increase,” said Neil Sweeney, vice president of Corporate Affairs of the company. “What was considered a low season no longer exists.”

– Erin Black of CNBC contributed to this report.