LA Wildfires: Flames Must Serve as a ‘Wake-Up Call,’ Says Firefighting Leader
About 200 pilots have been sent to Southern California to combat enormous ongoing wildfires, according to the head of the United Aerial Firefighters Association, who said the size of the fires is “totally demoralizing” and that they are expected to be among the worst in the country’s history.
“What we are seeing, especially in the United States and worldwide, is there is no longer a fire season – it is fire year-round,” Paul Petersen stated on Wednesday. “[This] could end up being one of the deadliest and most climate-costliest fires in U.S. history.”
Like airline pilots, association-affiliated aerial firefighters are only permitted to work eight-hour stints in the air. They work 24-hour shifts, though, according to Petersen. Pilots are equipped with night vision goggles at night, he said. They spray water or retardant materials from above and alert firefighters on the ground to the location of the flames.
Air tankers, such as Grumman S-2T and Lockheed C-130H planes, that transport thousands of gallons of water, and helicopters, such as Blackhawks and ACH 47 Chinooks, are among the aircraft provided by the association. Additionally, Cal Fire claims that they provide “scooper” planes that “scoop water from oceans, lakes, and reservoirs which can be dropped as regular water or be mixed with a foam retardant.”
These aircraft are part of a massive fleet that is working to put out fires in Southern California.
Currently, Cal Fire’s firefighting fleet consists of more over 60 airplanes and helicopters; three King Air A200 twin-turboprops are also considered “air tactical aircraft.” C-130 Hercules aircraft “equipped with Modular Aerial Fire Fighting Systems” have been flown by the Air National Guard to the Los Angeles region, where they are conducting operations.
“I’ve seen just the pictures, and I’ve talked to fire chiefs that are down there – they [are] ensuring that the devastation is worse than what you see on TV, that it’s worse than what you can imagine,” he added. “And from a firefighter’s perspective, it is just totally demoralizing because firefighters are there to solve problems and their people call them when it’s their worst day. And you go in to try to solve that problem, and you can’t do it.”
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports that as of Wednesday, the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, and Auto wildfires have burnt more than 40,000 acres and more than 12,300 homes around the state.
The EPA reports that only 19% of the Palisades Fire, which has burned over 23,000 acres in the Los Angeles area, is contained.
“When you have 13,000 homes lost, you know that that angers a lot of firefighters because they didn’t have the resources in order to do that,” Petersen stated.
“There’s a couple of different components of [this],” Petersen explained when asked why the recent fires had been so destructive. When you combine severe weather conditions with Santa Ana winds that are blowing at 50, 60, 70, or 80 miles per hour with fire, things simply happen so quickly that people aren’t ready.
“Communities that are unprepared for it, firefighters are surprised by it… When you start losing home after home and blocks after blocks after blocks, you’re just trying to figure out how do we stop this? And, you know, there’s really no playbook of how to stop a fire.”
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“Without increased funding for wildland fire, we’re going to continue to see this over and over again,” Petersen stated. “[It’s] not only recognizing that it is a year-round fire season, but also having the funding and the money to invest not only for fire suppression, but for hazardous fuels, for hardening communities. U.S. needs to get it, you know, take this seriously, that you have to do all things in order to protect communities from wildfire.”
“There is a huge need to look at local, state and federal levels to how do we really start to combat when fire and suppression is a big part of it,” he continued. “You got to fight. You have to fight the fire you have. But there also has to be fuel treatments, logging, grazing, green stripping. There also has to be incentives from insurance companies for fire-adapted communities. All three of those have to work and in one fell swoop in order to do that.”
As authorities battle looters and firebugs in the midst of the pandemonium, two men were charged with felony arson in Los Angeles this week. According to Petersen, it is highly improbable that the flames were caused by spontaneous combustion or lightning.