66th Aviation Performs Buckets Of Work

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Story & Photos by PFC Joshua Corsa   -   Posted Aug, 2001
     Aerial assets from the Washington Army National Guard were once again activated this year to assist in combating wildfires in Eastern Washington, this time at the Virginia Lake Fire Complex, a group of three fires on the Colville Indian Reservation.  The group included two CH-47 Chinook helicopters and two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, along with support personnel.
     The 66th Aviation Brigade has become accustom to this type of mission, and many of their pilots have flown on fires before. This time, however, the helicopters dropped more water than any of their previous missions, with a single Blackhawk performing 79 bucket-drops with their 650-gallon tank in one day, and one Chinook dropping 41buckets, each of which holds 2,000 gallons, also in one day.

     This is the first time weve actually been able to see the houses weve been saving, said CW4 Doug Hauser, another of the CH-47 pilots, who, together with the two Blackhawk aircraft were credited with directly saving more than 20 houses from the inferno.

An Army Guard CH-47 fills its 2,000 bucket in a nearby lake...

... and carries it over the surrounding rugged terrain to the fire line

      While dropping 2,000 gallons of water in a small area can be challenging enough on flat land, the rocky, mountainous terrain of the fires added an extra degree of difficulty.

     The terrain where you drop the water can vary a lot, said CW4 George Blakesley, a pilot who also fought fires last year, at Buffalo Lake and the Mule Dry Creek fires. We always have to leave a way out in case we dont drop our water. Our first few drops are always critical, because we are still heavy and dont have a lot of power left to use.

     The aircraft arrived on the fire August 15, and immediately began to fight the fire.  The governor signed the proclamation at around 3:30 in the afternoon, and we had rotors turning by 5 that night, recalled CW4 Hauser.
     The helicopters were released from the fire on August 24, after ten days of intense flying, which sometimes numbered as many as six hours of flight time per day.

     We got more than half of our annual flight time done in just this one week, CW4 Blakesley said. Their contribution was immense, according to fire officials. Mike Ferris, the Information Officer at the fire, summed it up. When the fire made its run a couple times, they really saved the day.

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