we're sending 4 CL415 this morning, ETD 14:00z

A bit late for them to ask us IMHO.....
Glad to help them though


(sry for the quality... taken from my phone from the camera's monitor...)

WoW...What a waste.
All those effective fire fighting A/C, "TEN of THEM", sitting on the ramp, parked.
When those people up in Alberta, are running for their lives!
These things, called 'super scoopers' here in the US, can pick up 1500 gals of water in 15 seconds!

Communication is the key here, IMHO.

Someone, really screwed up.

Horrible fire. I know some people from this site who have been helping,
housing and transportation of the victims.
I think it's a really serious situation.

Living in the forest, I can't even imagine what that would be like to witness.
The size and scope of it is unimaginable to me.
Runs shivers up my spine.

All I can say is that my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Fort McMurray, AB.

my daughter knows several folks who were burned out by the fire. Thank God that, so far, no one has been injured or killed

saw this on the news, evacuating a whole city because of this fire.

Many of the evacuated had move again. Those that went south are being chased by the fire again.
Been a hazy smoky day. Mowed and noticed it. That warm dry air moved in to. 81F right now with
a dewpoint of 24F. After last weeks rains, I am thankful for drier weather. Tomorrow they say
90F here. To soon.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/americas/fort-mcmurray-fire-canada/index.html

Must be hellish out there. I hope they all get out of the way. I would imagine you would have fewer people trying to ride it out like in floods. There's not much denial when you see smoke and ash from 100 miles away.

We just received Alberta's call yesterday for 2, then they asked 2 more.
Our 4 CL415 are arriving right now at Saskatoon, and they will continue their trip tomorrow to Slave Lake.
It's about 10hours of flight to get there

Maybe they get there in time to Save Anzac. The evacuation center for Fort McMurray. They
had to leave again.

the high here today was 49F. Looks like we have the weather that should have been there, Jim. it showered while the sun was shining several times. lots of wind. Certainly hope they get some relief on that fire.

Yes, the weather we should be having. But I will take it any day over being chased by a fire, scares me to death
to have been the position all those folks faced trying to escape. Nobody wants to get burnt. Then to face all
that heavy smoke to. No thank you.

What happened to the Mars water bombers in BC? Those things were enormous and very effective fire fighting aircraft.

Where they are kept is a long ways away in BC. The range of those water bombers would have been stretched to
the limit to get there and find another water source to load up.

Range? No, not really.
They flew those across the Pacific at the end of the war, to deliver mail and bring casualties home. I don't think range is the problem. From the Coulson water bomber base at Sproat lake, to downtown Fort McMurray, is 1202 km, or 747 miles.

Specifications (JRM-3 Mars) Range: 4,948 mi; 7,964 km

So clearly at full fuel, they could do a round trip from BC base to Ft Mac and back, and then go to... Miami Florida... without landing for fuel, and still have 600+ miles worth of fuel left over.


But... there are other considerations. where they started with three, for most of my life they only had two. And these days they are down to ONE plane. It's quite possible the plane was not ready. Meaning it might require hours or days of prep to change from "storage" mode to flight mode, due to how long they are stretching it's useable life. This is likely no longer a 'quick reaction' asset, but rather a "break glass only if you REALLY REALLY BADLY NEED THIS" asset, that will soon be permanently out of service.

As much as I love this plane, and what it does, the truth is, it would have been like pissing on a forrest fire: not even noticeable. 30 tons of water... for flames reaching 300+ feet in the air?!?! The fire jumped across large rivers, and some think it jumped 2km!!

A fleet of CL-215's and 415's would be much more useful, but even a fleet would be precious little compared to this firestorm. Saving buildings AFTER the main fire, that's where the fleet would help.

Makes you wonder how well a Fuel Air explosive device would do against a fire under
full throttle in the wind. The Fuel Air explosion would suck the air out of the area
the fire traveling into. But like the old movie with John Wayne putting out Oil well
fire with dynamite. Never know, but its an idea as long as its not dropped in developed
areas.

Gregoire Lake is not very far from there, I think they might be able to pick up from there... it's plenty large enough, but I don't know if it's too shallow or not. I don't think the Mars needs very much depth even to land completely, and picking up needs probably less depth than that, but some lakes in Canada are only 2 or 3 feet deep, and I very much doubt that's enough for a safe water pickup by sea plane. But there are other lakes to use in the region.


I'm actually in one of the oil camps that has evacuees from Fort Mac. Just had dinner an hour ago, couple little boys were having fun in the dining hall. Dogs mothers and kids everywhere. We have our own private airport, and people are being evacuated at a frightening pace. 5 planes per hour. It's a 2km runway, plenty for the B737's being used.

Last night a guy was describing how he and his wife drove out of town north, and then had trouble finding a camp that still had room, 'till they got here at Fort Hills.

All businesses up in the region opened things up for the evacuees... would have been a much worse situation if we hadn't.

This all unfolded so incredibly fast, that there was absolutely no planning ahead, it was "crisis, assess, plan, execute" within minutes or less. Some people are just waiting around. Others are run ragged at the speed of light, depending on what their job and position is.

Oddly enough, there's no one upset, no yelling, no conflicts between anybody. Just people doing their jobs as best and fast they can, and the rest staying out of their way so that they CAN!


There has been two fatalities though. Not from the fire, but when people were driving away on highway 881, where I used to live and drive, two large transports had a head on collision, both died. Amazing it hasn't been FAR far worse human toll than that.

Our dispatcher lost her home, her Dad lost his home and so did her best friend. She soldiered on, doing a great job of dealing with all the changes and crises.

I think I might get evacuated on Sunday. I'm fine with that, my building is safe from forrest fires. We think we'll be laid off, no work for at least 4 months. I'm ok with that too.

One of those killed in the accident on 881 was the daughter of the deputy fire chief. The other was his nephew. They were in the SUV that collided with the transport truck.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2680870/horrific-crash-on-albertas-highway-881-sparks-blaze/

That's a bad highway. A coworker of mine was driving it three months ago, little SUV spun, right into his lane... and went right under his vehicle. That driver did not make it... his SUV had the appearance of roadside garbage, not a vehicle in good shape. So my coworker has been off work since then, on stress leave. Thinks he's good to go, but driver evaluation didn't go so well, so he's still sitting at home on paid leave.

Driving up here can be dangerous, had three near death close calls on that highway in just three months in 2014. As the morbid joke goes,

"how do you make a Dodge pickup truck faster than a Lamborghinni?"

"Put a welding unit on the back!"

Hottest place in the nation today, Two Harbors,MN on Lake Superior. WOW. 93F. Shattering the record.
91F here, that hot dry wind is here to, thanking god it greened up enough around here we have not to
much to worry about. Its northern MN and WI, under the gun with Red Flag warnings. Line of T-Storms
moving through the northern part of the state, hope lightning don`t start any fires up in the blow
down zone.