December 2011
determination pays
- Busy season expected for Western
Cape fire fighters
- 1 December 2011
- By Various
- Although the Cape fire season only starts on December 1st, the Working On Fire teams have already been called out to incidents in the Picketburg area in October and November with the support of a Bell Huey helicopter.
The aviation elements that make up the region's fire fighting resources will once again be working under the Provincial Disaster Management contract as well as Working On Fire's rotary wing program and the Cape Town municipality's own standby Kamov 32 helicopter contracted from Titan Helicopters, who have a base at Cape Town harbour. The Provincial Disaster contract will embrace the use of five Polish-built PZL Dromader aircraft and 3 Thrush Bombers capable of carrying between1800 and 2000 litres of suppressant. This represents an increase of four aircraft compared to 2010/2011. The early call outs at Picketburg suggest the five-month 2011/2012 season will be as busy as last year.
Western Cape Provincial General Manager, Graham Barlow says there are a number of changes this year. In particular, the fixed wing fleet will be spread wider with two aircraft at Porterville, two at Fisantekraal airfield, two in Stellenbosch and two in Bredasdorp. The intention is to provide a faster response to breakouts as experience shows that fires can be brought under control quickly if attended to within an hour of them starting. Four 'first-strike' Dromader loads have proved highly effective in reaching a fire early and have a significant effect on committing smaller ground forces.
Bell Huey helicopters will be providing the rotary wing support to Working On Fire teams and these are based at Porterville, Newlands, Stellenbosch, Fisantekraal, Bredasdorp and the permanent base at George. The Hueys can carry between 1000 and 1200 litres of water. Eight Spotter aircraft will also be located in the Cape area with nine pilots.
Organisation changes will see a revised procedure for carrying out immediate initial attack through various dispatch centres.
The previous season saw the fire management operations respond to 450 fires with 58 using aerial support. Last year's four Dromaders flew a total of 150 hours and this is expected to rise in 2011/2012. The eight helicopters flew 835.7 hours in 2010/2011 and the fixed wing Bombers 285.5 hours.
2012 will again see Jannie de Vos co-ordinating aerial ops and Mike Assad and Charel Louw managing the aviation teams. Forest Fire Association Chairman is well-known aviation personality, Trevor Abrahams. Graham Barlow will have over 700 fire fighting personnel committed to this coming season's disaster management response.
