Airlift Wing Joins Early-Season Wildfire Battle From Skies Above

National Guard, Jun 2004

California

The wildfire season got off to blazing start this year, forcing the California Air National Guard to launch two specially equipped C-13Os May 5 to help fight fires that blackened nearly 29,000 acres of Southern California brushlands and forest.

Belong to the 146th Airlift Wing, the two aircraft dropped 21,600 gallons ol fire-retardant on Santa Barbara County's Cachuma fire before being released the same day after diminishing winds and cooler, moistcr air reduced the fire risk, officials said.

Before it was contrained, the Cachuma fire burned 1,127 acres in the Los Padres National Forest, destroying one home and 30 vehicles.

The C-13Os were brought in because steep terrain and poor access were hampering supression efforts.

They were equipped with the modular airborne firefighting system (MAFFS), which consists of a series of highly pressurized tanks that expel fire retardant.

Aircrews can release retardant or water out of the tanks in under five seconds through two tubes at the rear of the plane. This load can cover one quarter oi a mile long and 60 feet wide to act as a fire barrier.

Under a pre-existing agreement between the Defense Department and the Forest Service, the MAFFS-equipped aircraft may be used when all civilian tankers are activated but lurther assistance is still needed.

The C-130s briefly joined hundreds ol lirefighters in air and ground units under the coordination of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, officials said.

The 146th has been Hying aerial firefighting missions since the 1970s, when the mission was first assigned to the U.S. Air Force.

Today, four Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130 units fly eight MAFFS-equipped planes to assist federal and state forestry and fire-protection agencies to battle wildlires.

The units worked together in a joint effort last fall to help contain wildfires that burned a record 740,000 acres in Southern California.

Experts believe this could be another punishing wildlire season, which is already off to quick start, in part, because warm weather in April caused an early snowmelt.

-NGAUS staff report