Salazar seeks fire aid from Air Force

Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 8, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

Sen. Ken Salazar asked the Air Force on Wednesday how it could help fight wildfires in Colorado, after learning that most of the Colorado National Guard's firefighting helicopters are en route to Iraq.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Monday that 11 of 12 heavy Guard helicopters equipped for firefighting have been transferred to Texas for deployment to the war zone.

The four Chinooks capable of dropping 3,000 gallons each and seven Black Hawks that can carry 660-gallon buckets were used only as backup to leased civilian firefighting aircraft, but they were frequently a critical tool in halting disastrous wildfires. Their departure leaves the state firefighting fleet with just one-third the water-carrying capacity of last year.

The number of firefighting aircraft could be critical for tens of thousands of people living in the desperately parched Front Range, and for the equally dry southern third of the state.

"If fires do occur this season, the availability of the Air Force and Air Force Reserve to assist our firefighting efforts will become an issue of urgent, and possibly life-or-death, importance," the Democratic senator said in a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne.

Salazar then asked what aircraft and crews are available to respond and the limits on their use. The law requires the use of every possible privately contracted aircraft before the military is deployed, unless life and property are threatened.

Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said the senator also was concerned to read in the News about the slow call-up of Air Force air tankers during the massive Hayman Fire in 2002. Two of the Air Force's eight C-130 firefighting planes are based in Colorado Springs, but they sat unused for six days.

During that time, the fire burned a 20-mile stretch of Colorado, just a few minutes' flying time from the planes' base.

Federally funded civilian aircraft also are available to fight fires in Colorado, but they come and go to fight blazes in other states. And the federal effort is hampered by the fact that only 16 of the country's 46 civilian heavy air tankers are flying this year, following a series of crashes and maintenance problems.

Salazar, along with fellow Colorado Democrat Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., previously raised questions about the Forest Service's lack of a plan to deal with that shortage.

Mark Ray, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, said more heavy helicopters and small planes have been contracted for this summer to make up for the loss.

Ray also promised that he'd have a plan by next year on how to replace the heavy planes permanently.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News