Look, when you pay your taxes, you expect the fire department to show up with enough gear. That's all I'm saying.
Every government politician will have an excuse as to why only 8 tankers were airworthy, MAFFS wasn't deployed weeks sooner, and it won't matter a damn to the people who lost houses.
The Press is too chicken to ask. They're busy going to Government funded Press parties.
The front line folks such as yourself work hard. The back office folks, fumbled this one. And responsibility for the back office goes all the way to the top, in leadership school anyway.
We were busy paying for Soylindra and Abound Solar (both failed) and not minding the higher priorities. Because their priorities, admittedly set by their idiot constituents, are ****ed up.
The press asked. The President, et al, had nothing to do with it. If you really want someone to blame, look to Tony Kern, who did as much damage as he could before moving on to be a highly paid motivational speaker. I think he still had a chip on his shoulder after he was curtly dismissed by the tanker industry for naiveté and shortsightedness.
We're short two air tankers presently because one crew died fighting a fire and the other had a gear up. We die with some regularity, thanks, and the dwindling numbers are marked with a trail of headstones. It's not an easy job nor an easy industry.
I've been running hard on fires the past few days, and expect to do the same tomorrow.
There are more than 8 tankers in the country.
Presently the next generations of tankers are being tested and flown, and Neptune has a BAE-146 out on fires right now. Tanker 10 has been dropping. Evergreen bet the farm on the 747 project and nobody would pay for it. Everyone wants the private individual to bankrupt themselves for the public good, as though we're all volunteer firefighters, then the public screams and yells when there's nothing left. Nobody was defending us in 2003 when the tanker industry was dismantled. Nobody comes to the funerals or worries about the lack of support when one of us is killed over the fire, as regularly happens.
Your tax dollars didn't put the P2V's, the P2's, the C130s, the PB4Y's, the AT802's, the DC4's, DC6's, and DC7's, and other platforms in the air over fires. Private companies did that, and not with government pilots, but individuals who put their lives on hold for your fire season, then found themselves year after year out of work at the end. The aircraft are available, and for many years, decades, even, worked a shoestring budget with very little support at the cheapest of wages and contract support to give people what they wanted.
You might be thinking that nobody ordered up a tanker. If so, you'd be thinking wrong. The tankers are stretched to the breaking point. There's no more. MAFFS are available, but are very limited in their capabilities and their availability. They're not firefighters; they're military pilots performing a task they've been assigned. They don't have the decades of fire experience that makes a tanker pilot. They don't have the flexibility with their equipment that allows them to split loads and vary coverage levels and do the other things that are needed for tactical firefighting. They deliver enmasse, and when all hell's broken lose, then it's enough.
The folks at Tanker 10 built a DC10 into a tanker, but crewed it with DC10 pilots, not firefighters, and they very nearly paid dearly. After that, nobody would hire them. They're extremely expensive, and their last hope was California, which also elected not to use them. They've struggled like everyone else, but the bill is high.
Tankers aren't there to put out the fire. If you think so, you don't understand the capabilities and the use. Tankers are there to support fire operations on the ground. There's no other way. Tankers are there to modify fire behavior on a small scale to assist an incident commander in working the fire, every bit as much as each person carrying a pulaski or driving a dozer. Tankers are another tool in the toolbox, from the 800 gallon Type III AT802 to the DC10, and everything in between.
This isn't a matter of a president getting face time during a disaster, and blaming the man, his administration, or other politicians for not having enough tankers. No tanker company has extra aircraft, and none are forthcoming. The government doesn't provide them. The military has other priorities, and aren't firefighting professionals.
But I know who's here fighting the damn fires...
I am.
There are a couple of Canadian tankers; the firefighting is being done by thousands of yellow-shirted Hotshots and Flamingos and Smoke Jumpers and Engine Crews, and Helittack Crews. Tankers are simply there to support them. Single Engine Air Tankers, Large Air Tankers, and the Super Tankers are all out there working. Did the government cause high-profile operations such as Aero Union to "dwindle?" They did not.
On the fire line, we haven't dwindled. Some of us are part of the year, some of us are full time year-round, but we're still here, still fighting fire, just like every fire season.
