Letters: A concerned Washingtonian’s solution to forest fires

Editor,

The solution is when, “There will be no more ‘major’ forest fires as they will all be extinguished in their infancy. This will happen on the same day that a fire is reported and it is all done from the air.”

This capability will happen in less than two years after and only because Congress passes an act and the President approves it that transfers the responsibility for fighting forest fires from the Forest Service to the Air Force.

With the Air Force, they have it all, the men, the pilots, the right size aircraft and, critically important, sufficient numbers to extinguish all forest fires very rapidly. The only added item is a budget to pay for this extra responsibility and other associated costs.

To clarify, the responsibility of the Forest Service is to spot and report all forest fires. Their other responsibility is after the fire is essentially extinguished.

The Forest Service can transport a few fire fighters to the site to extinguish any smoldering embers and make sure that the fire does not reignite.

The military and active duty personnel will be responsible for all aspects of the aircraft involved. They are responsible for the infrastructure needed, the bays where the aircraft will be refueled and reloaded, including the large water storage tanks, even quarters for the crews. All this will be at a normal military base that is not too distant from the forests that they are to protect.

Another critical item is the size of the fire that each concept puts out. The military will have extreme priority to attacking the fire as soon as possible with as much water as possible, resulting in a fire that is extinguished as soon as possible. This immediate action restricts the fire’s growth to less than 30 acres, and possibly even less than 8 acres. This fact cannot be overstated as it is far beyond any dream by the Forest Service.

Compare this to the Forest Service plan to establish the fire line requiring two to three days, then 10 days that can mount to weeks to extinguish the fire.

During this time, it has grown to perhaps 2,000 acres or more, while also burning structures, and possibly taking a life or two.

Also consider, because of their high mobility and quick response, large tanker aircraft must be the optimum tools. The Forest Service has none and must rely on a bag of mixed aircraft, almost all of this being insufficient payloads provided by contractors.

The Air Force will bring to the fight possibly over 100 large tanker aircraft, many including C-5As with a capability that is many times more than the Forest Service can muster. Although these aircraft will be distributed to a few bases on or near the west coast and Canada, each base should have the capability of extinguishing most all fires in their first pass.