firefighting

[john sutton]

2012 on Vimeo

worth playing.this is whats been happening down here
john sutton

[Tony Morcom]

Excellent video John. Thanks for sharing it with us. Pity the plane appeared to crash at the end

[j.sabourn]

John as you know Bush Fires in Australia are very prevalent, and as we are approaching the time for such those with small holdings and such must build by law fire breaks, which arent always successful as if you ever saw a fire in a strong wind you woud see how it can jump the road easily. However the use of water bombers is used these usually consist of helicopters with a water bag suspended underneath. I live 400 yards from the beach, however there is a fairly small ornamental lake across the road from my house and every time a fire in the area they tend to fill up from there. I enquired why they didnt fill up from the ocean, the answer was that sea water would damage the machinery and the lake was fresh, so the poor fish and evertyhing get sucked up every year and go on the fire. My wife is a volunteer with the Sally Army and helps to man the food truck to feed the firefighters and quite often gets called out in the middle of the night. I never volunteered for this one, but the general populance is usually very good in emergencies. I always thought that fire was the worse thing that could happen on a ship Cheers John Sabourn.

[Keith Moody]

excellelant piece of film, the water bomber you saw in the film was built in canada, it is a purpose built areoplane and are distriputed all over the world and are reconized as the best aircraft for the job, previous to this here in canada they used to use the ww11 canso aircraft and i beleive that out in British Columbia they are still operating 4 engined wwii seaplanes for the job. here in Manitoba we have 8 on standby throughout the summer when our weather changes from the freezing snow to a high of 35-40 with little or no rain and lots of fires get started by lightning, mainly in the wooded areas.
the crews work all the daylight hours on these aircraft, up in the air and down to the nearest lake to fill up again and again, this is a hands on operation and skill and concentration is required at all times. long days and in most cases less pay than an airline pilot.
keith moody
R635978

[Dennis McGuckin]

The water bombers [Martin Mars] are kept at Sprut Lake, just west of Port Alberni, Vancouver Island.
Charted all over the world.

Never mind about the 'poor fish'
Some years back, after a forest fire was put out, the remains of a scuba diver was discovered miles from any lake.
Turns out he was swimming along and was sucked into the tanks.
Can't imagine [if he was still alive] how he must have felt when the tanks opened and dropped him into an inferno.

So much for a nice peaceful day at the lake.
Den.