Alan M. Petrillo

The threat of wildland fires continues to loom not only in the western and southwestern states but also in other parts of the country. And in many wildland fire situations in those areas, firefighters need the help of air assets to get a handle on the conflagration. The types of aircraft and helicopters used by fire bosses to control wildfires from the air vary with the area, the terrain, and the air assets available to be deployed.

According to United States Forest Service (USFS) data, there are one billion burnable acres in the United States, with approximately 100 million of those acres classified as "highly flammable." A quarter of a million communities and 80 million people are under threat from wildland fires, the USFS data shows.

Tom Harbour, USFS director of fire and aviation management, says that in 2012, the USFS deployed 20,000 firefighters and 2,000 engines to fight wildfires around the country, along with flying 300 helicopters and 25 air tankers.

Air Tankers

Harbour notes that the USFS's aviation assets include large Type I and Type II air tankers; smaller Type III and Type IV air tankers, helicopters, and scooper aircraft that are also used for aerial supervision; smoke jumping platforms such as the DC-3, C-23A, Twin Otter, Easa, and Dornier aircraft; Cessna Citation and King Air fixed-wing aircraft used for infrared mapping; aviation units from local and state jurisdictions; and contract fleet air tankers and helicopters.

Fixed-wing aircraft used in recent years by the USFS to fight wildfires include very large air tankers (VLATs) like the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 that can carry 12,000 gallons of water or retardant and the Boeing 747 with a tank capacity of 24,000 gallons, Harbour points out.

Type I air tankers include the Martin Mars (7,200-gallon tank), the Lockheed P-3 Orion (3,000-gallon tank), the Lockheed P-2 Neptune (2,700-gallon tank), the Douglas DC-6 (2,800-gallon tank), and the Douglas DC-7 (3,000-gallon tank).

The CL-215/Bombardier 415 Superscooper is a Type II air tanker that can carry 1,600 gallons of water, while the Type III Grumman S-2T carries 1,200 gallons and the Fire Boss 800 gallons.

(1) The Fire Boss has an 800-gallon tank and can scoop up nearly a tankful of water without landing in a 15-second pass over a body of water. (Photo courtesy of Fire Boss.)

Scoop and Drop

Jamie Sargent, a technical consultant with Wipaire Inc., which owns Fire Boss LLC, says there currently are 51 Fire Boss aircraft operating around the world, with 42 units in Europe, 13 in Canada, four in the United States, two in Australia, and one in Argentina. "The challenge in the U.S. market is that it has been geared toward ex-military aircraft converted for firefighting," Sargent says. "But, agencies are now moving toward next generation platforms and focusing on land-based aircraft that can haul retardant and water."

Sargent notes the Fire Boss serves as an initial attack resource for wildland fire managers, and because it is a turbine powered aircraft, there is no engine warmup time required, meaning the aircraft can be on its way to fight a fire very quickly.

"The Fire Boss has an 800-gallon tank onboard and can scoop between 600 and 650 gallons at a time, which takes about 15 seconds," Sargent says, "because you never can scoop a full tank capacity. With between an hour and a half and two and a half hours of fuel

By Roger Lackore
Director of Product Safety
Oshkosh Corporation

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on Fire Department Apparatus is the group that maintains the standards that specify the minimum requirements for automotive fire apparatus and trailers. For decades, this committee has considered revisions to the wildland and municipal standards on different schedules. Many requirements are applicable to both types of apparatus, so the fact that the standards were revised on different schedules created a degree of inconsistency.

To address this, the committee delayed revising the municipal standard and pulled forward the wildland standard. Beginning with the current cycle, revisions for both NFPA 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, and NFPA 1906, Standard for Wildland Fire Apparatus, will be considered together. This schedule will allow the committee to address issues that are common to both standards at the same time, keeping them current with one another.

FAMA Participation

Fire Apparatus Manufacturers' Association (FAMA) members have been actively participating on this committee for decades. They educate committee members on new apparatus safety features and benefits and keep the content of each standard technically sound. Since most fire departments adopt these standards as the foundation for new apparatus purchases, it is critical that changes to the standard are technically feasible and cost-effective and can be implemented on time.

The importance of the NFPA apparatus standards cannot be overstated. They are the established minimum criteria for apparatus that will provide safer operation for firefighters and the public they serve. Chiefs and safety officers should be intimately familiar with the content of these standards; how their fleets comply with these standards; and when old apparatus need to be retired, refurbished, or replaced.

Although individuals should not avoid reading the standards, there are other ways to become educated. FAMA has many downloadable resources to assist fire departments in understanding recent changes, navigating the NFPA process, keeping up with NFPA changes, and helping promote the benefits of safety features on new apparatus. Many of these resources are provided in presentation format for use at meetings within the fire department or with outside decision makers. These resources are available for free download at www.fama.org.

Potential Topics for Consideration

Although you might have thought that major changes in the 2009 edition of NFPA 1901 addressed all possible issues, there are still a number of topics that appear on the horizon. It is likely that the committee will be considering proposals to increase the minimum size of apparatus seating in response to a firefighter size and weight study completed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Since the widths of most custom cabs are already at or near the legal limit, significant changes to seat width requirements would eliminate the four-across seat configuration popular with some departments.

A likely topic for consideration on the wildland side will be the practice of allowing firefighters to ride on the back of apparatus during pump-and-roll operations. This is a common approach in certain regions for fighting grass fires, but it is counter to the fundamental philosophy that firefighters must be seated, belted, and inside an enclosed cab anytime the apparatus rolls. The committee will be challenged to provide some means of addressing this perceived need without compromising safety.

Advanced technology such as collision avoidance warning systems and automatic braking may be on the docket. The committee always struggles with balancing the cost of additional features with their potential benefits, part

Alan M. Petrillo

Component manufacturers have made great strides to fine tune various pumps, monitors, and nozzles so those pieces of equipment give the best performance when being operated in wildland and urban interface environments. And, new ways of handling old problems are continually being developed.

Wildland Nozzles

Elkhart Brass makes the Flex Attack nozzle, popular with wildland firefighters for use on handlines, says Eric Combs, marketing director, Elkhart Brass. "We offer it in a break-apart version that can be shut off, broken apart to extend the line, and then the tip attached at the end of the extension. This can be done quickly, without shutting down the entire line back to the apparatus."

Rod Carringer, vice president of sales and marketing for Task Force Tips (TFT), says his company's Tornado monitor has undergone changes requested by wildland crews. "We now have nozzle choices that integrate lighting and thermal imaging in them, which was driven by people operating in the wildland field," Carringer says. "These nozzles are being used on monitors on both Type I and Type III engines."

Carringer notes that TFT offers two separate styles of nozzles for wildland use. "Some users want totally restricted flows to conserve water, while others want the latitude to gate a valve in the command cab," he says. "They might want 15 gallons per minute (gpm) most of the time but need to go to 125 gpm at others."

(1) KME partnered with Elkhart Brass to develop Whipline and bring it to market. Whipline has flow rates available from 30 to 120 gpm, is suitable for pump pressures up to 300 pounds per square inch (psi), and sweeps 90 degrees horizontally to each side. (Photo courtesy of KME.)

The Tornado monitor line also has an electronic oscillation function that allows an operator to set the monitor to remember a particular motion. "If the monitor is installed on the front edge of a truck's bumper, you can get about 220 degrees of oscillation," Carringer observes.

TFT also has developed nozzles that allow flow limiting, Carringer notes. "The nozzle might be set at a 10-, 15-, or 20-gpm limit, but it's still an automatic nozzle that controls the best stream at whatever limit it is set for."

He adds that there's a regular need for flushing wildland nozzles. "A lot of debris comes through the tanks and pumps and into the nozzles," Carringer says. "A lot bigger chunk will go through a pump than will come out a nozzle." Accordingly, TFT came up with Smart Stream, a nozzle where the operator has to make a secondary movement to flush. "The nozzle operator has to make one movement to flush and then hit it a second time," he notes. "It's a failsafe method to go to flush to get debris out of the line and then go back to firefighting."

David Durstine, vice president of marketing for Akron Brass Co., says that all Akron's nozzles used in wildland applications have a built-in flush setting to get rid of debris that might clog the nozzle. With the company's Forestry monitor, nozzles are available in several adjustable gallonage models as well as fixed-orifice, fixed-bore tips, stacked tips, and compressed air foam system (CAFS) tips.

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