These pilots are hard at work here in CO.



http://www.9news.com/news/photo-gallery ... yid=272067
http://www.examiner.com/node/48535476?s ... e=48535546

I'll add more pictures and videos as I find them.

Ya god bless them and good fighting, those guys are working their butts off. That is one wicked fire.

They are working their tail feathers off for certain...

This is one of our heli ski pilots, Ken Schwabenton flying the big crane here...http://www.examiner.com/node/48535476?slide=48535551#slide=48535546

They are doing a super job. Although many buildings have burned, many more would have, but for the incredibly accurate "strafing" by the pilots. Lots of thanks are due them and the 600 some folk on the ground fighting this monster. It's not as bad as the Hayman fire of 10 years ago, but it's truly awful--lots of displaced people, 44,000 acres. Prayers would be good.

Cary

We're over 100 miles to the NE of this fire. The other night had a huge smoke cloud headed from SW to NE. I think Colorado is using up all of it's Carbon Credits for the year.
Have a couple of friends west of Ft Collins who have had their cabins burned out...they need some rain!!

Unfortunately no rain in the forecast.

Cary

Impressive drops

Cool pics but I hope they get that fire under control.

Always thought flying a SEAT would be a pretty fun gig.

Great pix Matt!!

Visiting my son in Boulder. I arrived Saturday morning. By afternoon, it looked like a giant thunderstorm up there. It was all going NE so we got a good view of what looked like Mt Saint Helens in full blow by late afternoon. It was hot as hell that day, then the winds came as the cold front moved through. Made it hard to guess which way the fire was advancing and it was a real monster. Lots of beetle-killed trees ready to explode. Those guys are earning every nickle and I don't envy them that kind of flying, especially after the recent Cedar City incident.

My baseball cap is off to those guys.

YB

Our state is currently experiencing 4 wildfires. Many, many homes lost and the fire crews are having a terrible time gaining any ground on containment. The conditions are extreme today as well; temps in the 90's, humidity in the single digits and teens, and lots of fuels. Please keep these folks in your thoughts and prayers today.







A few heavy tankers, SEAT's, and heli's working the area. (I'm searching for a live feed.)
http://kdvr.com/2013/06/11/air-tankers- ... wildfires/

I call BullSh*T. You (USFS) can't mismanage a resource for that long and with that amount of ineptitude without it biting everyone in the A**. Look around Colorado. Beetle kill is everywhere and spreading like crazy. Yes, the pilots are good, but that's really not the point. Thanks goes out to another gov't agency screwing everything up!!

Then there are the "lifestyle junkies" who build stupidly with no defensible space... and wonder why this happened to them.

Does water from a helicopter really stop a forest fire? No cynicism intented.

It looks like in that dry heat, airborne water would mostly evaporated from high dew point before reaching the fire.

It looks spectacular, but impact per dollar spent?

Right, water dropped into fire would just evaporate, objective is to saturate fuel to slow down or stop flames from advancing.

The visibility really dropped here in Denver this afternoon, and the smell of smoke fills the air...

My thoughts are with all of those affected by these wildfires, and hats off to the aviators fighting these fires!

8GCBC wrote:Does water from a helicopter really stop a forest fire? No cynicism intented.

It looks like in that dry heat, airborne water would mostly evaporated from high dew point before reaching the fire.

It looks spectacular, but impact per dollar spent?

In light fuels a helicopter alone can stop a fire. In timber, Helicopter water drops are effective to stop the fire if resources (engines, dozers, hand crews) are available on the ground to back it up. Some have onboard foam injection that adds foam to the water which makes the wetting effect last longer too.

A sky crane with a water source nearby can be very effective.

The Black Forest Fire is absolutely heart breaking. Fire crews are in for another long day with high temps, low humidity, and high winds. (Keep in mind this fire is less than 2 days old and 0% contained.)

BY THE NUMBERS
Number of people evacuated: 38,000
Number of acres consumed: 13,000
Number of acres evacuated: 94,000 acres
Number of structures destroyed: 360
Number of homes unaffected: 1,205
Number of homes not verified: 79
http://www.fox21news.com/news/story.asp ... bnlQfmG3h4

Lots of videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/7NewsDenver ... =0&tag_id=

Seems suspicious because of the no sequential or disjointed areas effected by the fires. Any word on what caused the forest fires?

Thank you for the videos! Very scary.

No reason for the cause yet, still under investigation.

More sobering pictures here of the aftermath from yesterday.
http://photos.denverpost.com/2013/06/12 ... rest-fire/

In the videos, it's amazing how the forest fires leave one house standing and then the fire totally consumes it's neighbors.

Nobody asked me but,

Forrests are extremely combustible. Building in a forrest requires certain actions and responsibilities. Home property needs to be clear cut a safe distance and maintaned (proximity depending on density and height of foliage) from a structure. Similar issues with flash floods in Arizona. Developers built homes in dry rivers and lakes that clearly represented danger. Hopefully some habits have been changed.