The Wuff's Fire Pics

Well, being I am a fire nut and love the challenge to fight the beast, I managed to grab some pics of one of our DC-9 Conair air tankers doing a drop on a lightning strike that had been smoldering for a couple of days and finally ignited. This is directly across the lake from my house.

Oh, I'm soooooo jealous!
Must get back out that-a-way.

We were planning on heading out there this weekend but too many things have come up and we won't make it this month. That's 9 months without being in the Kootenays.

A friend of mine flys water bombers for the Manitoba govt. Pretty interesting job.

Stoopid lightning!!

0007onWR wrote:

Stoopid lightning!!

No... Not stupid lightening. Ka-ching for Shewolf.

Fargo_Wolf wrote:

0007onWR wrote:

Stoopid lightning!!

No... Not stupid lightening. Ka-ching for Shewolf.

Preferably, I'd rather the lightning NOT strike, have there be NO fires and not have to risk Shewolf getting hurt... Or worse...

*hugs teh momma wuff*

SheWolf wrote:

Well, being I am a fire nut and love the challenge to fight the beast, I managed to grab some pics of one of our DC-9 Conair air tankers doing a drop on a lightning strike that had been smoldering for a couple of days and finally ignited. This is directly across the lake from my house.

The DC-9 tanker conversion is one of the options that saved the design... Cool how they swoop right in there like that, takes some skills to pull that off.

Looks more like a prop driven DC-3 than a DC-9 which is jet powered. I find it hard to believe a jet could fly slow enough to drop shit on a fire effectively.

That was a good one. I ran that by one of my supers and they were like "No, it's a DC-9." So I showed him a pic of the DC-3 and it was "Oh..." So much for them knowing everything...that was interesting.

The Mosquito Control District used to fly DC-3's down here years ago. Scared the shit out of the tourist when they flew over the houses about 100 ft. high, bellowing out smoke and skeeter spray. They are good old planes and hard to kill. A real work horse.

This was a controlled paddok burn in winter. So you coud imagine what a summer wild fire would be like.

This is the fire burning on Terrace Mtn, approx. 4 miles southwest of where I live. People living in Washington are probably getting the smoke from this one, it's putting out a lot of the crap. So far there is an evacuation alert for the area 2 subdivisions up from where I am, as the are has cover well over 1000 hectares (approx 3700 acres), and is continuing to grow. I've got my R² in the back of my truck and the XL and ATV in the trailer. I'm on stand-by all week, so if you don't see me for a while, you'll know why.

Shewolf, be safe *hugs* You're in my prayers... You and everyone else up there.

And then we go out and do live fire exercises... and nearly end up burning down the whole damned camp and every vehicle in it. BATUS gets lots of these, but when the fire department sits idly there, just watching the fires approach and apparently not wanting to get their vehicles dirty, you have to wonder...

The little dots in the first picture are 70 ton main battle tanks...





Okay... if the mattressbacks don't want to get their shiny toys dirty, send in the infantry. Nothing about shovels and givin' 'er that they don't know about. Amazing how fast a couple of hundred infantry with shovels can create a fire break... Lots of these guys have done tours in Afghanistan and/or Yugo. Digging like your life depends on it is old news...





Of course the wing weenies had to come over and have a look...







Anyways... at the end of the day, we just scorched the paint on a few vehicles, although the Brit Challies had been routed into ignominious retreat...

Hopefully, nobody will decide that the CF is needed to fight fires in the Interior. I have better things to do.

Pretty cool pics in this thread.

Jager:

The fire personnel more than likely didn't intervene because they were green and therefore NOT fully versed in the special operating procedures they have when it comes to military personnel, most of those procedures revolving around exactly who is in charge and who calls the shots. In any situation regarding military personnel, if they aren't sure who has priority they have a standing order NOT to intervene until directed to by the commanding military officer.

Also, you mention that this was a "LIVE FIRE" exercise, which means the area was a live fire zone. They have a personal safety order that states that they are not allowed to enter a live fire zone until it is proven safe or they are otherwise ordered.

To get the fire personnel involved all you military guys most likely had to do was order them over.

Next time, before you start pointing the "Lazy finger" maybe try looking into exactly why the person or people in question didn't intervene.

Tibarus wrote:

Jager:

The fire personnel more than likely
didn't intervene because they were green and therefore NOT fully versed
in the special operating procedures they have when it comes to military
personnel, most of those procedures revolving around exactly who is in
charge and who calls the shots. In any situation regarding military
personnel, if they aren't sure who has priority they have a standing
order NOT to intervene until directed to by the commanding military
officer.

Also, you mention that this was a "LIVE FIRE" exercise,
which means the area was a live fire zone. They have a personal safety
order that states that they are not allowed to enter a live fire zone
until it is proven safe or they are otherwise ordered.

To get the fire personnel involved all you military guys most likely had to do was order them over.

Next time, before you start pointing the "Lazy finger" maybe try looking
into exactly why the person or people in question didn't
intervene.

Thank you for your concern. Next time, before you start chirping, maybe try looking into how we do things so you at least know what the hell you're talking about.

These guys aren't "green". They work on a military base... As in 12 months of the year. Four weeks a month. Seven days a week. 24 hours a day. They weren't just invited over to experience the base. This is not some strange new environment to them - they know more about that base than any of the military training there. They undoubtedly know the base standing orders better than the soldiers who travel there to train.

Grass fires are what they do. They get started on a daily and weekly basis on this range due to live fire. These fires are normal - if the military waited until there was no fire danger, the base wouldn't be usable most of the year. They see more of the military in a week than you'll see in your whole life unless you join up. Multiple grass fires on any given day are old news.

Second, if you knew anything about what you were talking about, you'd know this range was not live and couldn't have been live. Range control calls the shots on those ranges - not the military and not the fire department and not anybody else. A range is live when they say it's live, and down when they say it's down. EVERYONE monitors their net and does exactly what they're told. Nobody wants to see a Range Control truck headed their way to have a little chat. They can and regularly do kick generals off the training area, with no appeal allowed.

If that range had still been live, RS staff would have been everywhere and there wouldn't have been anything other than range activities going. And if had still been live, the mattressbacks wouldn't have even been there to have their picture taken - nobody goes on a live fire range without body armour and brain bucket. Aircraft, incidentally, REALLY hate flying over a live range - there's something about the chance of meeting up with a mortar or artillery shell in mid flight that keeps them away (even if they were inclined to disobey Range Control's no-fly orders). So they wouldn't have been there to get their pictures taken either.

As it happens, those fires had been started in the morning range shoot and the range ex had been closed for hours at the time these pictures were taken.

However, in deference to you apparently knowing somebody who was in that fire truck that day, I have removed the offending picture. Don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

Thank you for your interest in the military and the procedures that are followed on a base. If you want to follow up on that interest but are reluctant to sign for a full time career, I can recommend a recruiter in Vancouver who would be pleased to find you a home in any of the fine Reserve units in the Vancouver area. Then you can go and experience this base and live fire on your very own. Maybe even start a grass fire of your own. And if while you're doing your basic military training, maybe even with me as your section commander!

BTW, I was a volly structural firefighter for six years, so I have been in a hall once or twice. Not to mention cleaned the odd dirty bit of gear and fire truck...

Ok, so I was wrong, big deal, I'm not too stubborn to admit that. Thanks for correcting it Jager.

As for the Army possibly being called in to fight fires, while I'm sure the help would be greatly appreciated... As big a waste of military time it would be... This is Canada we're talking about... we call our service people into the shovel snow during a Montrèal blizzard and send our troops to the desert in GREEN camo... Does being called into fight fires sound all that far fetched?

Gotta love this country of ours eh?

As for putting my name on the service list... Had it been offered as a viable career choice option back in high school I probably would have joined up. The special events planners at my school wouldn't allow the speakers to come present, a curse of being run by the PTA. Serving as a career, or even just doing your part as a citizen wasn't a "high interest" topic... At least in my end of Vancouver.

You were with structural Rick? I was too for 6 years before I went with straight forestry. I wasn't into working with a pot-head chief...the guys I work with now are pretty good most times. I just find it ironic that some of them take their holidays in the middle of fire season.

This morning the air was so thick with smoke.



All the ash that is coming down is coating everything...

Gah! *hugs and worries*

How is the containment coming? are they at least getting SOME ground back from the flames?

They've got a cat guard on the SE and NE flanks, but because the terrain is so steep it makes it hard to establish a good guard. Not to mention it's burning so damned hot that aerial support has to strategically drop to target, and then there's the problem of spotting.

SheWolf wrote:

They've got a cat guard on the SE and NE flanks, but because the terrain is so steep it makes it hard to establish a good guard. Not to mention it's burning so damned hot that aerial support has to strategically drop to target, and then there's the problem of spotting.

Maybe they should bring the Martin Mars in... Fore-go accuracy for pure quenching power...

I think they'd probably bring in the KAMov from VIH or the S-64's before they bring in that beast.

SheWolf wrote:

I think they'd probably bring in the KAMov from VIH or the S-64's before they bring in that beast.

*worries more*