SIMI VALLEY FIRES

TOOK MY BREATH AWAY!!

I wonder what the focal length was on that lens. But whatever, it is pretty obvious that those fire tanker pilots don't get paid enough, not by a long shot. Is there any hope that they'll find a way to prevent these fires in the future? Looks scary on TeeVee. Steve

Hi Steve,
As you know, we have the same problem here..

As for preventing the fires, the answer is simple - shoot the bastards who start them!

My house has been in the line of fire twice in 5 years, deliberately lit fires. I now have a 5HP diesel water pump & fire hose.

One story though (there's always a story!) - 2 years ago my son & I were at our nationals, over new year. The area where we live was warned to prepare for evacuation - we had to fly home, leaving the car & models 500 miles away & missing out on several events. When we got home Barbara had packed the valuable stuff (dog first!) into her car. Next after the dog was my box of engines... bless her heart! Cost me an expensive dinner, that one.
Cheers, Dave

Dave? .. Should I ever find myself in the line of bushfires (a possibility here in the Dandenongs), would you consider a wife-swap?

Ken,
That is a subject for discussion on another type of forum altogether....
Cheers, Dave

Wife swapping ockers!!!

Oh dear, what will the rev say?

Dave,
we had a similar experience in the Lake Macquarie fires early last December (yes I know, December 2002 wasn't a good month for the Fairalls). Late in the afternoon we noticed smoke up in the hills west of us. It got thicker and thicker. I went down the hill to the lake to see what was happening. I noticed police cars coming down our street and police going into each house. When I got back home I was told we had ten minutes to evacuate. We had a box prepared with our essential papers etc already but it took ten minutes to phone friends and relations, pack clothes, blankets over the computer , tv etc, gather pets. Got the family off to the muster point in the wifes car, as the police were forcefully removing my neighbours I quickly grabbed the paint, dope thinners, fuel ingredients from the garage and dumped then in the back yard. Tossed a few old towels over them and wet them with the hose. I was hoping that some of the stuff in the garage would survive if most of the really inflamable stuff was somewhere else. Locked the garage with the models and the motors inside. Gave the house a quick hose over until the water pressure disappeared (pumping station was being burnt down). Just then the police got to me and threatened me with arrest unless I left immediately. So I left, but stopped after a couple of hundred metres and rang Ian Smith, (a fellow aeromodeller and club member) who lived about a K downwind, to warn him. He had already been told to prepare for evacuation and was also removing everything inflamable.

After a quick phone call to the family and a trip to Ian's, I decided that I may as well go back and watch the house burn down from a safe distance. So I went to the park on the lake at the bottom of my street. By now the Wangi-Wangi fire brigade had an engine at each end of the street ready for the fire front and the place was crawling with police and volunteer fire brigade (from Awaba). Suddenly with an impressive roar, "the jolly green giant" (an Erickson Skycrane) came over at tree top level and dumped a load of water and repellent on the fire front which was about 400 metres from my house. It was joined by two smaller Navy helicopters. In 15 minutes they had it under control, fortunately because it was getting dark and they don't fly then. They wouldn't let us back to the house till well after 9pm, and even then we were on standby to re-evacuate. So we spent a restless night with at least one family member awake all the time. We could watch the bush and buildings just across our Bay burn all night. Fortunately the 80km/hr winds dropped away early in the morning easing the danger.

What did I learn. All my really valuable aeromodelling stuff, old motors, mementos etc are now in the one box that can go into the car. In another emergency most of the models, equipment etc will just have to be abandoned. Theres just too much of it and it's not portable. Also it seems crass to think about aeromodelling when the whole community is in danger, there are just other priorities!
It also focuses your thoughts on how vunerable we really are in our bush communities. We were really lucky the the skycrane was available. That day there were only three or four fire outbreaks. The system could very well have been overwelmed like it was in Canberra the next month!

Ray Fairall,
Lake Macquarie,
NSW Australia

>TOOK MY BREATH AWAY!!

Greg, the Simi Valley fires literally took my breath away. I am still suffering from smoke inhalation. I can't really use CA adhesives yet until my lungs heal.

Serious question

The fires were pretty scary on TV even from 10,000 miles or so away.

Did any of 'our friends' suffer serious and/or permanent losses? I hope not!

Regards, Geoff

>Serious question
>
>The fires were pretty scary on TV even from 10,000 miles or
>so away.
>
>Did any of 'our friends' suffer serious and/or permanent
>losses? I hope not!
>
>Regards, Geoff

My kitchen was covered in soot. My Toyota truck went from a new car smell to smelling like a million people were smoking cigarettes inside it in one day! I am still hosing down the soot on the patio. Daytime looked like late evening and it smelled like you were living in a furnace. It looked like a scene from the movie, "Apocolypse Now". Your lungs start to fill with fluid and your head hurts like crazy.

Very impressive photo, but you should see what it looks like to be standing on the fireline and look straight up an aerial tanker making a drop. Gets your undivided attention.

For the last 33 years, I have had the pleasure of working in wildland fire suppression (that's the politically correct term for forest firefighting) for the Florida Division of Forestry, with the last 20 years in supervision. Greatest job in the world. (I feel pretty lucky. I have the geastest job and the greatest hobby.)

The advent of the aerial tankers and heli-tankers really brought a new demension to fighting large wildland fires, however, there was and still is a learning curve. Contrary to what the news media likes to broadcast, aerial and heli tankers rarely ever "put out" a wildland fire. Their objective is to hold the fire in check or at least slow it down until ground resources or some pre-existing barrier stops the fire and puts it "dead out". The other thing that ground resources have to learn is that the pretty red spray of water coming out of that aerial tanker can kill you plumb dead if you are hit by it. That water can impact with the weight of a full size car. A drop by a heli-tanker isn't quite as dangerous since the amount of water dropped is many times less. The average aerial tanker drops about 4,000 gallons. The average heli-tanker drops about 300 gallons.

For those who like to put things in a dollars and cents perspective, the average aerial tanker drop costs about $5,000.00. Yes, that is for one drop. The wise Fire Boss makes sure the drops go where they will do the most good. It's hard to explain to the bean counters why that drop was in the middle of a highway (seen that one happen).

I sincerely hope the low-lifes who caused the recent California fires are caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, 33 years of experience tells me that this is not likely to happen. Wildland arson is extremely hard to prove in court without eye witnesses to the act.

Bill Hodges
Smokey's buddy and CL flyer

Mark Conner, Othello, Washington, and our favorite crop-dust pilot/CL Stunt Dude called last night, and his kid brother was flying the airplane.

Evidently he (briefly) got in some hot water over this picture; as Steve Helmick suspected, it was shot with a real long lens. Mark relates the airplane was well away from that ridge when dumping its load.

Mark also says Todd Ryan is flying quite well. With a CL Stunt model.

Uh-oh...

Mr. & Mrs. Al Ulm, F1b (Wakefield) flier from San Diego county, lost their house, models and everything except the clothes on their backs, and a vehicle or maybe two. They were seen out flying at Lost Hills wearing new clothes, borrowed models and equipment. I guess when you have to live in a motel, you might as well go flying. Pretty tough deal, not *spring chickens*, either. Steve