Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BC WILDFIRE SERVICE

Air Tankers: BC’s first line of defense against wildfires

Jun 4, 2019 | 5:13 PM

KAMLOOPS — The BC Wildfire Service has plenty of tools to use in its wildfire fighting efforts; maybe the most effective tool is air superiority. Each year, the Wildfire Service employs dozens of aircraft to fight fires all across BC, all of which are marshaled out of the Provincial Wildfire Coordination Centre here in Kamloops. As CFJC Today found out, the aircraft are assets vital to ensuring the safety of British Columbians during the wildfire season.

It’s a sight many British Columbians have become accustomed to over the past several summers. Aircraft are often used as the first line of defense in the fight against wildfires.

“Air tankers are a very important resource, in terms of being able to respond to wildfires,” Michael Benson, Air Tanker Program Superintendent with BC Wildfire Service explains. “They’re very, very fast — that’s their greatest value proposition, and they have a lot of capacity. They really are a powerful tool.”

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The tankers themselves are heavy aircraft, able to carry much retardant to keep a fire in check. When they’re out on a fire, they’re used in concert with “bird dogs” which are smaller, more nimble planes that help the tankers plot a course of the attack.

“The bird dog is more like a sports car,” Benson says. “Whereas an air tanker… it has a lot of weight — 30,000 pounds worth of retardant on board. So it’s more like a big bus. You want to make sure it’s very safe to go in a fly in the fire area.”

Image Credit: CFJC Today

Along with the big tankers, the wildfire service uses skimmers and helicopters to fight fires. These smaller aircraft usually pick up water from a nearby lake or river to drop onto hotspots once a retardant line has been laid down by the big tanker. However, for these types of aircraft to be effective, there has to be a big enough body of water near the fire. When conditions are dry like they have been this spring…

“It does influence suppression tactics, the water availability for our skimmers,” Provincial Wildfire Information Officer Erika Berg explains.

Image Credit: CFJC Today

Berg wants to remind the public about the importance of being fire smart when they’re out enjoying the wilderness.

“We want to urge the public to be extremely cautious while enjoying our forests in British Columbia,” Berg says. “[Also] be especially aware when conditions are dry and windy.”

For residents enjoying BC’s natural spaces and for the crews flying fire suppression missions for the Wildfire Service, safety is always priority number one.

“On the air tanker side, we really focus on three factors when determining whether we’re going to engage, or not,” Benson explains. “It’s ‘safe, effective, efficient’ and it really has to be all three of those to warrant engaging on a fire.”