Firefighting aircraft 'in mothballs' overseas while country burns
December 29, 2019
Sydney Morning Herald
Bushfire experts have questioned why Australian governments have not used powerful firefighting aircraft sitting dormant overseas to battle the blazes ravaging NSW and other states.
Fire & Rescue NSW commissioner Greg Mullins said dozens of aircraft were mothballed in the northern hemisphere winter that could be available "in a week".
A Super Scooper CL-415 firefighting aircraft from Canada makes a drop to protect a house during the La Tuna Fire on September 3, 2017 near Burbank, California.
He said an aircraft worth testing was the Bombardier CL-415, a twin turbo-prop purpose-built aircraft capable of dropping 6000 litres and scooping water from the lakes, rivers and the ocean. But "Australia hasn't touched them yet", Mr Mullins said.
DoSomething founder Jon Dee, whose house has been under threat in the Blue Mountains, said eight Hercules aircraft specially equipped for firefighting were available in the United States.
In an email exchange seen by The Sun-Herald, the US Forests Service said the aircraft were "probably available" but the service had not received any approach from the Australian authorities.
"We've lost over 100 homes in the Blue Mountains," Mr Dee said. "If we'd had far bigger aerial support, how many of those homes could have been spared from the fires?"
Mr Mullins said he was aware of the US Hercules aircraft, but was not convinced it was the best water bomber for Australia's needs.
The federal government provided $11 million to bolster aerial firefighting capabilities earlier this month, but Mr Mullins said it was "smoke and mirrors" and "too little too late".
"What I and 29 other former chiefs are saying is that with longer and overlapping fire seasons it is just very clear that we are going to run out of large aircraft," he said.
"They should be looking at these scooping aircraft because Croatia, Italy France, Portugal and Canada have all got them and they are all in mothballs in winter. There are dozens of them and they are cheaper than jets.
"If they [the government] wanted to make an impact, just about every state and territory could have a couple of them if the government kicked the tin.
"They could get on to the Canadian government and I am sure they would be here in a week. They'd have as many as we want."
Mr Mullins' comments came as 82 blazes continued across the state on Saturday, half of which are yet to be contained, and a "very high" fire danger warning was in place for much of the east coast.
David Littleproud, minister for Natural Disaster and Emergency Management, said in a statement that aerial firefighting needs highly-specialised training which our air force pilots do not have.
"Converting the Hercules C130 for water-bombing would take considerable engineering and time to complete," he said. "Taking the Hercules out of military service would also leave Australian troops on the battlefield without the support they need."
The NSW Rural Fire Service said in a statement that it has more than 135 aircraft available on contract or on a "call when needed". As well, it has four owned by the NSW RFS and NSW Government - three helicopters and the Boeing 737 "Large Air Tanker".
"A number of aircraft have been sourced from overseas through contacts with third-party companies and the NSW RFS, as per the Service’s requirements," the statement said.
"This season, the NSW RFS has 4 Large Air Tankers (LAT) and a Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) available for deployment across the State. This is the most number of LATs/VLAT engaged by the NSW RFS during a bush fire season on record. Due to the severity of the fire season, two extra LATs were contracted by the NSW RFS.
"The NSW RFS continues to work closely with the National Aerial Fire Fighting Centre (NAFC) to assess aerial firefighting capabilities and identify new technologies."
Correction: A previous version of this story said Greg Mullins is a former Rural Fire Service commissioner.
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Firefighting Aircraft In Mothballs Overseas (Read 1375 times)
