BUENA PARK, Calif. (AP) — Flames poured from the windows of a fire station on a rainy Southern California morning, the raging blaze destroying firefighting vehicles and ravaging the building while a crew was out on a call Thursday.

No one was injured in the fire that broke out around 3:30 a.m. at Station 61 in the city of Buena Park near the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz said. Another crew housed in the station escaped safely.

The blaze destroyed a 100-foot-long aerial ladder truck, a battalion chief command SUV, a pickup truck and a swift-water rescue boat. In all, about $1.5 million in firefighting equipment was lost, Kurtz said.

It took more than 60 firefighters from multiple agencies several hours to douse the flames, which severely damaged the station. Water pooled around crews as they hosed down the blackened building.

The cause was under investigation. A fire engine was away on a call when the fire broke out, Kurtz said.

Station 61 had been earmarked to close and make way for a new, $13 million station house nearby, the Orange County Register newspaper reported.

The fire will not affect any requests for firefighting or paramedic coverage in Orange County, Kurtz told the newspaper.

"We have plans in place for scenarios like this," he said. "We're a very large organization, and we have plenty of backup apparatus and quarters."

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This story has been corrected to show the fire was reported at 3:30 a.m., not 4:30 a.m.

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A fire early Thursday morning destroyed a home in the 2700 block of State Route 109 in Ocean City, but the couple who lived there escaped without injury. The fire closed both lanes of the highway for several hours as crews from Grays Harbor Fire District No. 7 responded to fight the blaze in the double-wide mobile home, along with help from neighboring Ocean Shores and other rural districts.
- PUB DATE: 1/12/2017 12:35:17 PM - SOURCE: The Daily World

Global SuperTanker Services, LLC’s high capacity, rapid response aerial firefighting technology received interim approval from the U.S. Interagency Airtanker Board (IAB) on January 6. The interim approval will allow the tanker to be considered for critical federal, state, and international firefighting contracts ahead of the 2017 forest fire season.

Global SuperTanker’s B747-400, the Spirit of John Muir, incorporates a patented system capable of delivering single or multiple drops aggregating nearly 20,000 gallons of water, fire retardant, or suppressant. These fluids can be released at variable rates from the plane’s pressurized tanks, producing a tailored response to the firefighting need. The Spirit of John Muir is the world’s youngest, most modern, and fastest Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT). It has almost twice the capacity of the next largest aerial tanker.

“IAB approval is an essential requirement in airtanker contracts for some wildfire agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service (USFS),” said Jim Wheeler, President and CEO of Global SuperTanker. “With this approval, we look forward to bidding on - and winning - upcoming domestic and international contracts. We are grateful and excited to join the team of airtankers currently serving a critical mission for the United States and globally, and look forward to continuing to work with the USFS, CAL FIRE, and the IAB during the final approval process.”

Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, said, “Colorado is the perfect place to headquarter the SuperTanker. I am encouraged that the IAB has granted interim approval with the hope that the firefighting capability the tanker provides will be available during the 2017 firefighting season.” Wheeler added, “We appreciate the strong support that Congressman Doug Lamborn has shown throughout this process.”

The Spirit of John Muir received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval in September 2016. It set off on its first mission in November 2016, when a series of massive blazes in Israel prompted thousands of evacuations and destroyed hundreds of homes. Global SuperTanker responded immediately to an urgent call for help, flying nonstop on short notice from its home base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Tel Aviv, providing crucial firefighting support.

“We were honored to assist the people of Israel during an extremely challenging time,” said Harry Toll, Managing Partner of Alterna Capital Partners LLC, whose portfolio company, Cyterna Air, LLC, owns Global SuperTanker. “We are enormously proud of the Global SuperTanker team and its supporters, and we look forward to helping many more people in the U.S. and abroad in the years to come."

IAB approval is necessary to win all federal firefighting contracts, as well as most state and some international contracts. Interim approval will allow Global SuperTanker to apply for these contracts – some of which are opening for bid within days – while the IAB considers final certification.

The Spirit of John Muir flies at nearly 600 miles per hour, enabling the converted B747-400 to reach any mission in the western U.S. in fewer than three hours, and any mission in the world in f

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On October 28, 2016, Latvian heavy-duty drone manufacturer Aerones Ltd., together with the fire and rescue team from Aizkraukle, conducted an experiment the world had never seen before. In this experiment, the “Aerones” drone was tested to fight possible fire accidents. The results proved that it is able to reach heights exceeding those of firefighter truck ladders, while the drone also has the capability to operate in hard to reach and dangerous spots.

Currently the drones weigh 55 kg with a length and width of 3 m. With 145 kg of lifting power they can work up to 30 minutes depending on weather conditions. It takes 15 minutes to change batteries, while a full charge can be reached in approximately 90 minutes. New tests addressing the possibility of supplying the drones with power through special cables are planned in the near future.

The company is in progress to obtain a patent for the use of their drone to extinguish fires at very great heights. It is estimated that by using its drone, heights of 300 to 400 meters will be accessible for firefighting.

For more information, visit www.aerones.com.