I feel like the ATGS folks do an excellent job keeping retardant out of the waterways. Been on a lot of fires and scene a lot of retardant dropped. A lot were near lakes, rivers and creeks. I cant remember any off it washing into the water in winter and causing a kill. What I can remember is bad water management and water getting to warm in many lakes that effected the fish.
New USFS retardant vendor and product.
Paywalled but you can read it in incognito mode (if you can deal with the obnoxious ads)
Fortress Chief Executive Officer Robert Burnham said the Forest Service approval process moved slower than expected. He questioned whether the fire retardants would ever get to market.
Apparently he is not familiar with the progress of other federal air program projects.
Good article, thanks! Glad to see some serious competition in the retardant sector. Bob Burnham was my first boss in wildfire and we got a chance to talk about his new company this spring. He told me one of the big pluses for magnesium chloride-based retardants over phosphates is a more stable supply chain and smaller energy footprint. He said a lot of the raw materials for Phos-Chek come from Eastern Europe, where they are mined and then shipped across the Atlantic. The war in Ukraine caused disruptions in the supply of phosphates.
Mag chloride is evaporated from the Great Salt Lake using the sun, it requires a lot less trucking distance to get it to the end-user, which will end out saving a lot of money and emissions.
Years ago we had an issue mixing two different brands of Class a foam. Can these two retardants be mixed into a tank when residue or a quarter tank or half full without causing a jell problem like the foam did. Or any problem for that matter?
When they tested fortress in Missoula on LATs there were major issues resulting in down time as a result of it mixing with residual LC in the tanks. Crews had to open tanks and literally scrape out the resulting concoction as it caused drop system malfunctions. There was an obvious chemical reaction that was very thick and gummy and troublesome. They tested it on SEATs last year. This year, LAT vendors are bidding on a contract where the selected aircraft would ONLY use fortress. They would set up a mobile retardant base, even if it’s at an existing one, to load that tanker(s) with fortress. I’m guessing that tanker would stay more or less home based with the mobile crew.
Unless they fix the reaction issue of commingling residual LC with Fortress, it’s gotta be a no go. LATs are fast and have long legs and can load from several different bases, in several different regions, in one day using LC or FX. LC and FX commingling with residual of the opposite has never been an issue.
Copy, thanks for the quick response.
Thanks for sharing great article.
Tankers, helicopters, and air attacks have been heading from McClellan to their seasonal bases the last few days, 89 and AA 230 went to grass valley this morning, AA330 is heading south, and yesterday helitanker 0HT arrived at Millerton.
Everything on base Columbia. On morning staffing 4 Alpha Juliet( Billings Chinook) is now on contract.
Ramona has its home ships 70, 71 and 330
Exclusive Use copter 19HT on base at the Mariposa Airport
Between Columbia, Mariposa, and Millerton that’s a pretty good punch for Helo’s.
With Cal Fire having 13 EU Type 1 Helicopters on top of the Firehawks this will be a game changer on IA. Not included here is all the Federal EU T1 Helicopters and all of the LG T1 ships. Most fires will have 2-4 T1 Helicopters assigned on all IA to Extended Attack Fires. Not to mention a fire that goes Extended to Major could have 6-10+ EU Helicopters assigned. Last year the Mariposa Airport was shut down to civilian use because there were 15-20 Helicopters assigned to the Washburn and Oak Fires.
Those EU T-1s have been only used when the AA gets on scene to request them, or if no CalFire copter is available in the area to dispatch. But more toys will get there faster.
We have been told that any company officer or BC can request them similar to the way fixed-wing aircraft are ordered. The only restrictions I know of are the VLATS. The FAE has to be OS longer than 20min to make the request and even then it has to be approved by the responding BC.
In San Diego, you get a T1 on every high dispatch with the Cal Fire EU ship, the County Sunbird Ships, the City of San Diego ship or the Forest Service EU ships.