Thread: Harvey Fires back on.

Originally Posted by Eevo

it really depends on the kind of fire.
fast running grassfires, you want the small planes.

forrest fires, you want something bigger.
not saying the small aircraft are ineffective. well, actually, sometimes they are, and the fire hasnt been knocked down at all.
sometimes the small craft water drops dont penetrate the tree canopy.

point is, it never hurts to have the dc10 on standby during a big fire.
if it doesnt get used, who cares.
if it does get used, fantastic.

Not saying ban them, they will contribute to a bushfire fighting effort if the rate payers are willing to fund it. Having experienced small capacity drops from the air I want to be somewhere else if even a partial load comes down from the likes of a DC-10.

Trust me, Unless ground crews get in and do a complete blackout, DFES is 20 in and 100 up, any effort, air support included is mostly useless. Certainly in the west, when the easterlies get up, off she goes again.

Graz

Originally Posted by Graz

Trust me, Unless ground crews get in and do a complete blackout, DFES is 20 in and 100 up, any effort, air support included is mostly useless. Certainly in the west, when the easterlies get up, off she goes again.

Graz

That applies everywhere, aircraft will never extinguish a fire (forest), they only knock it down and allow the ground troops to come in and do the hard graft to extinguish. We have exactly the same issues in the east except its the northerlies/westerlies that give us problems.

I could see the possibility that a pure grass fire could be extinguished by an aircraft drop, but there'd be no way that I would trust the edge without a ground inspection.


Martyn

Originally Posted by Piddler

Category: | The Mercury

Holds 45,000 litres of suppressant in 1 drop

That arsonist operating in the area is at it again.2 fires last week and another today in Collie(same area).Not good,back up to 40+degC temps tommorow.
Police caught an arsonist in Armadale.Police nab 'firebug' close to Haynes blaze
Andrew

Andy, surely you know what to do with an arsonist and a grader.....