Oct 12, 2008 4:19 pm US/Pacific
Wind Concerns In SoCal Fire
RIVERSIDE
No matter how many aircraft local, state and federal agencies make available for firefighting duty in Southern California, they won't fly if Santa Ana winds blow hard enough, according to veteran firefighters, pilots, and a tanker base manager.
Sustained winds over 50 miles per hour might be considered the maximum drafts for all aircraft, according to Jim Wilkins, a spokesman for CalFire Southern Region Operations in Riverside.
But with so many localized variables to consider, the final decision is always left up to individual pilots, said Wilkins, who worked 34 years for the San Bernardino County Fire Department and 16 years with National Incident Command. "We had a pilot hovering over the Panorama and radioing 90 knots before he landed," Wilkins said, referring to the Panorama Fire that howled through north San Bernardino on winds approaching 100 mph, destroying 280 homes in a matter of hours, in 1980.
In the past five years, during destructive blazes that veteran firefighters described as firestorms, blasting winds above 60 mph grounded all aircraft -- tanker planes and helicopters -- at times.
It's a reminder that firefighters and residents are clearly at nature's mercy at times, according to Wilkins.
Winds gusts up to 50 mph are forecast for the Santa Ana event expected
Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy-duty helicopters like the Skycrane and other military machines with the Navy and Marines may be able to fly in those conditions, according to Wilkins. "They have massive engines, with incredible lift and power," Wilkins said. "But if the winds blow hard enough, even Skycranes won't fly."
Deputy Shawn Moore, a pilot with the San Bernardino County sheriff's
aviation unit just below the Cajon Pass in Rialto, said he and his fellow
pilots will hope for the best and take what they get. "Some days are worse than others," Moore said. "And sometimes the forecast is different from what happens. We don't really have a hard number for safe flying in the winds. A lot depends on the aircraft and the terrain."
Leslie Casavan, manager of the U.S. Forest Service Tanker Base in San
Bernardino, agreed that final decisions are often left up to pilots. "They're firefighters, so they want to put out the fires," Casavan said. "A lot depends on wind direction, wind speed and topography. Some say 30
knots to 40 knots might be a threshold." Forty knots is roughly 46 mph.
Casavan said most of the aircraft at her base Sunday morning were re-
deployed to the 750-acre Little T Fire burning in canyons east of the San
Fernando Valley. "This morning we had three heavy tankers and two Skycranes," Casavan said. "They're all assigned to the Little T now. We might two tankers back by tonight."
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