Bob La Quey wrote:
On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 9:35 PM, Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Legatus wrote:
I work with the NWCG, and they are quite aware of the value, and lack of
value to water drops. They also know the value of keeping the politicos
out
of their business. Water drops keep the politicians and public happy with
the efforts. They don't hesitate to shift these resources to a place that
the water drops would be helpful, when it is appropriate. The pilots are
not
naive about their role and when it is effective, and when it is not.
Basically they will deliver water drops constantly, because if they don't,
then they have to deal with the political and PR fallout. When there is a
useful place for the drops, then that is where they will happen. There
is
also constant experimentation with chemical fire suppressors that may
increase the effectiveness of air drops by large margins.
My expectation was that the water drops were actually more useful in
targeted situations (small flareups that threaten to restart, saturating
areas to prevent the fire from moving toward your ground staff, etc.), but
that you had to be "en route" already to be useful in those situations.
I don't expect that air firefighting is useful in stalling the general
conflagration. In fact, about the only thing that I presume is truly useful
for fighting these fires is actually bulldozing a firebreak and patrolling
it. Everything else has fairly minimal impact.
-a
I still do not know what NWCG is. I could Google but I find
it irritating that someone who lives in the bureaucracy
(apparently) just naturally assumes we should know what the
acronym means.
National Wildfire Coordinating Group
It's the umbrella government org for wildland firefighters.
<http://www.nwcg.gov/>
-ajb
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