Aerial Firefighting in a Changing World

There’s a storm brewing on the horizon and the world needs coordinated effort to prepare for it. We are seeing increased fire weather and wildland fires year over year. Many regions have surpassed their individual capacity to deal with the fires they already have, and each year those fires seem to grow more frequent and more intense. Other regions have yet to feel the full effects of the changing climate, but glimpses have been given. As recently as two years ago in New Brunswick we had our worst fire season in 25 years. This year the Province of Newfoundland is experiencing fires larger than they have seen in the past 60 years. These are areas that are normally cooled by the north Atlantic and subject to fairly wet summers in comparison to the west coast of North America and Southern Europe but are no longer able to ignore the coming threats.

Aircraft

There are a number of problems that compound the increasing global fire threat. In Canada, and much of the world for that matter, the CL215 and CL415 “Canadair” aircraft once produced by Bombardier and De Havilland have long been out of production. These are the backbone of the aerial firefighting fleet in most state and provincial organizations. They are extremely expensive, but highly effective at what they do, with superb performance, maneuverability, and power to weight characteristics. While many jurisdictions have several aircraft in their fleet, the unfortunate reality is that these aircraft have lacked a dedicated parts supply for years, requiring many of them to become “hangar queens” used as nothing more than parts for the remainder of the fleet. Parts sharing and aircraft cannibalization across jurisdictions to keep the maximum number of aircraft in the air has become the norm. While it’s true that De Havilland recently received a grant from the government of Canada to create the CL515 in Calgary, the time for that fleet to come online and satisfy the needs of an industry is likely too great to feel any relief for perhaps 10 to 15 years.

The Air Tractor AT802F and Fire Boss platforms are affordable, efficient, and well designed to create early success in quick attack and rapid response to smaller fires. This tactical approach of finding fires when they are small and dealing with them while they are still under a hectare is perhaps the most efficient way of preventing the cataclysmic and devastating effects we are seeing in Southern Europe and the west coast of North America. We’ve used it to great effect over the past 40 years in New Brunswick, with detection aircraft launched daily to locate smoke and launch assets to deal with it immediately rather than waiting for the problem to grow. Even now, to purchase a new 802 or Fire boss, the order to delivery timeline is 1 to 2 years and you cannot simply buy a fleet all at once. You must wait your turn in a production line that feeds not just aerial fire, but also the lions share of the global agricultural market and also, recently, with the Special Operations of the US military and the development of the 802U close support aircraft. There is a real need for more aircraft and a real delay in being able to get them into the market, despite best efforts from this world class manufacturer.

There is a myriad of repurposed airliners on the market these days, with operators manufacturing systems to convert Q400 and RJs into aerial fire aircraft. This has helped some operators but arguably the time between loads from drop to reload and back can be challenging, and the runway requirements for larger aircraft can further limit its operational effectiveness depending on the distance between fire and reload base. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see operators taking the initiative to deal with the void in the industry and create solutions where there is a need.

Pilots

While having a fleet of aircraft is important, it goes without saying that without skilled operators you have nothing. Aerial firefighting is a unique skill set. Many of the aircraft require time with specific ratings, including float operations, mountain flying, and tail wheel time. These are skills in high demand, in a pool that is ever shrinking. Its no secret that the number of pilots globally does not match the demand and as more boomers retire, this becomes an increased risk for operators. You cannot simply take someone from the airline industry, or for that matter from the agriculture sector and put them in a fire role. The tasks are different. The flying is different. Real emphasis needs to be placed on training the crews that you have, creating a dedicated development program in your corporations, sponsoring new pilots in the aerial work industry, and encouraging the next generation of young people to consider aviation, particularly in low level SEAT, tail wheel and float, hand and foot flying rather than the big airlines.

Coordinated Effort

Fire assets are in high demand. A mechanism to coordinate the sharing of those assets is required to offset the supply versus demand issues outlined above. In Canada we have the Canadian Inter Agency Fire Fighting Centre (CIFFC). In Europe, there is the newly formed RESCEU. These agencies have the challenging task of keeping up with an increased number of fires year over year in an ever-changing environment, with a fleet of aircraft that are aging, and provincial and national budgets already strained by the effects of two and a half years of COVID, and a multitude of other economic drivers that have much of the world on the brink of recession.

Arguably the system is somewhat broken. That is not to say that the people staffing it are not doing an admirable job, but assets are not getting to where they are needed, and we are not using the full force of the existing fleets we have to combat the problems we face today. ?No doubt these organizations lack the funding and manpower they need to be truly responsive to the problems they are charged to coordinate. This is further exasperated by the combination of private and state operated air operators, each with their own mandates, limitations, budgets, and capabilities. Although the unified approach works on paper, it is clear more coordinated efforts are still required. We only have to look across our flight line at the 8 tankers which have had one response since the end of May while our neighbouring province burns with a 5000+ hectare fire to realize that things could be better. ?

In the agricultural world (in North America) we have the NAAA and CAAA (National and Canadian Aerial Applicator Associations). These groups work to coordinate industry needs with the governmental regulators and drive safety and professionalism in the industry while sharing important ideas and changes through programs like the Professional Aerial Applicators Support System (PAASS). In Aerial Firefighting there is not the equivalent organization. It’s a gaping void that is evident from the perspective of a company that sits on the fence between both the fire and ag world, as we do and have for so many years.

Nationally in Canada the Canadian Council of First Ministers (CCFM) have begun to discuss the problem of increasing threat from wildfire. Over the past year they had a series of consultation meetings addressing a number of topics as the first steps towards creating a solution with a timeline of 2030. As a backbencher to these meetings, although encouraged by the dialogue and recognition of the pending threat, the fact that no aerial fire fighting companies were at the table to discuss the problem, while groups like the national building and insurance agencies were, highlights the need for a national or international association to be that voice.

The impact of climate change and a lack of coordinated approach to fires as the global population grows and wildland urban interface increases is only going to get worse, putting not just trees, but structures and people at risk as well. That’s not meant to undervalue trees. Protecting each and every tree, both from a supply chain and an environmental standpoint is incredibly important. The carbon captured by our forests is key to combating the environmental catastrophe on our horizon, and a well managed forest and healthy a vibrant forestry sector is equally important to reducing the impact of fires.

Conclusion

When I started to put pen to paper this AM, I didn’t set out to have the results be all doom and gloom. With that said, there are real and substantial issues that no one industry or governmental actor can address on their own and the time is now to start to work together to tackle them. We need more air assets, more pilots, more parts for the ailing fleets that exist, better coordination of assets that exist and a unified approach to training and development of future capabilities. The threat is already on our doorstep. The costs are monumental (60 cents of every dollar in the US Forest Service is already spent on wildfire) and only increasing but the cost of inaction is even higher. You can make a difference. Reach out if you are interested in helping us to tackle this issue. Let’s start the dialogue today to protect tomorrow.