RONAN — Across the country, wildfire crews are preparing for action — getting ready to respond as soon as they're needed.
Here in Montana, The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Division of Fire details how their aerial firefighting program works when it's time for them to answer the call.
“Being an [initial attack] ship, you're usually the first on scene and you try to catch everything small," Helicopter Supervisor Todd Couture said.
When a call comes in for a wildfire, Couture, who has been in firefighting for more than 30 years, and his crew make sure aircraft are ready.
“Either an air attack or a helicopter will be the first on scene and we will get there and get a good lat-long. Within our contracts, you've got to be off the ground within 15 minutes," Couture said.
If a fire is extremely active on initial reconnaissance, the helicopter tries to slow the spread and help crews on the ground.
“It's one hundred and eighty gallon bucket. So you look at that times eight. You know, you're looking, over a thousand pounds of water coming down on top of you," Couture stated.
Those massive drops are directed to specific spots.
“You try to start cooling off the least active part of the fire. Anchor, flank and pinch. So you anchor it, flank it and then pinch off the head. And that that'll usually stop the progression," Couture said.
CSKT also sends aerial support throughout the West via inter-agency relationships.
"Out of the 120 days, we were gone 60 of it in Oregon and Washington, helping on on the Yakima Reservation, the Colorado Reservation and Warm Springs Reservation," Couture said. "Hit some large fire on some BLM ground outside of Warm Springs, the Cram Fire. It was the number one fire in the nation for a little while last year. So, we got to help initial attack on that one."
Pilots handle rough environments flying into active fires, but besides mechanical problems, wind gusts could hold aircraft on the ground even if they’ve already flown that day.
“Here at the airport, planes have to come back here to refill. Winds that are blowing 10 and you start getting above 25 gusts. Usually we'll limit the aircraft from flying," Couture said.
"If we have a side wind or a crosswind on the runway, it kind of limits what they can do. And in the last couple of summers, they've shut down for part of a day because they couldn't fly," he said.
When the aircraft do get to fly, Squad Leader Jacques Graham said they work relentlessly to save homes, businesses and resources.
“One of the greatest feelings in the world is when you protect the town or something. You got little kids down [saying] 'we love our firefighters'. You know, it makes you feel 10 foot tall, invincible, and it kind of gives you that satisfaction of why, why we do this job," Graham said.
As Division of Fire gets ready for the upcoming fire season, they said the federal fire agencies restructuring adds uncertainty to funding and procedures. Couture added inter-agency communication and mutual aid is crucial.
“The D.O.I., the U.S. Wildfire Service versus the Forest Service, which is still out on their own. So, just unsure how that's going to look and who's going to still be here at the end," Couture said.
