SACRAMENTO — From down under to flying high above wildfires, an Australian aircrew has been hired by California to help in fire attacks this year.
Australian pilot Tony Franc took us into the cockpit of the Boeing 737 air tanker. The air tanker can release massive amounts of fire retardant on wildfires below.
California has a memorandum of understanding with Australia’s New South Wales state government. The agreement allows the air tanker to be in California during fire season.
“The governments around the world are contracting aircraft to help with that resource and the equipment is getting larger as well because the fires are getting larger,” Franc said.
This week’s fire weather has the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) activating its operation center for what they are calling an “Extreme Temperature Response Plan—Phase 2.”
That automatically triggers:
- daily briefs between the OES and the Governor’s Office.
- the activation cooling centers.
- developing staffing patterns.
- tracking mortality data related to heat.