By Ben Goad
The Press-Enterprise
WASHINGTON — Mounting concerns over the nation’s beleaguered aerial firefighting fleet are exposing tensions between state and federal agencies tasked to work together to counter the nation’s worsening fire seasons.
The U.S. Forest Service’s fleet of air tankers, vital to battling blazes along Inland Southern California’s rugged mountainsides, has shrunk from 44 to 11 in recent years; many of the aging aircraft had to be retired. The agency in February issued a plan to build up a fleet of 18 to 28 tankers. But lawmakers and state fire officials have criticized the plan, originally scheduled to be complete in January of 2011, as long overdue, short on details and generally insufficient.
Meanwhile, the depleted fleet of federal tankers threatens to undermine cooperative agreements through which the Forest Service and Cal Fire share resources to battle fires in areas of both state and federal responsibility.
“I am concerned that during periods of multiple large fires in other regions, California will be left with an insufficient number of federal aircraft to meet the normal initial and extended attack workload,” Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott wrote in a letter to Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.
Pimlott, whose agency has 23 smaller tankers at its disposal and has maintained the fleet’s size despite budget cuts, met Friday in Washington with Forest Service Director of Fire and Aviation Tom Harbour.
Harbour stressed that interagency communication would be of paramount importance, given the diminished resources. He also said the Forest Service would rely on 30 large firefighting helicopters and roughly 90 smaller ones under contract with the agency.
The Forest Service also has access to a pair of smaller CL 215 firefighting planes known as “Scoopers,” which are able to drop hundreds of gallons of water at a time on flames in remote areas, and a DC-10 jumbo jet-turned-air tanker.
When all resources are exhausted, the agency also can call for help from the Pentagon. The Air National Guard operates C-130 cargo planes outfitted with dispersal units that can carry 3,000 gallons of fire retardant per load. There are eight units based around the country.
The Forest Service’s Tidwell said during a hearing in March on Capitol Hill that he expects to rely on those aircraft more this year. But he said the Pentagon has made it clear that it is not interested in expanding its firefighting mission.
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