All language subtitles for B T W S03E01 1080p WEB h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

- This program is made possible

by Wings Over the Rockies,

educating and
inspiring all people

about aviation and
space endeavors

of the past, present
and the future.

Hi, I'm Shahn Sederberg,

and this is “Behind the Wings ”.

In this episode, we'll
explore the challenges

posed by wildfires and
the role of aviation

in fighting fires
from the skies.

Only you can prevent
forest fires.

Fire aviation teams are
critical, complex efforts

made up of pilots,
technicians, coordinators,

and ground crew
who work together

to put out and
contain wildfires.

In this episode, we'll
speak with the pilots

to learn what aviation
firefighting is
and how it works.

Then we'll explore the
aircraft themselves

to learn more about
the modifications

and the technical aspects
that enable these planes

and helicopters to operate
in firefighting missions.

And finally, we'll meet some
of the many community members

who were so drastically affected

by the historic 2020
Colorado fire season.

It's time to go
Behind the Wings.

- My name's Clare Waldoch

and I'm a crew chief
here at CoFire Aviation.

Today is our first week
of company training 2021,

and we're out here in
Fort Morgan, Colorado.

So to get ready for
the fire season,

we've got our airplanes here

and we do our annuals,
our 100 hours,

we get our trucks
and trailers ready,

get those all fixed up.

We just make sure that our
equipment is in tiptop shape

and ready for a
full fire season.

CoFire is a big family.

You know, the fire
aviation world,

it can be a dangerous
thing to do,

so everybody comes together

and makes sure
everything is safe

and done correctly, properly.

CoFire has a support crew

and the drivers that drive
the support vehicles,

it's kind of like a mobile base.

So we have the ability to mix

retardant on our trailers

and load it onto the airplanes.

So essentially, if we
get stationed for a fire

where there's no resources,

we're able to support
from the ground

and help out with that fire.

So we've got
everything available.

We get there in the morning
about nine o'clock typically,

and the pilots will do their
walk around the airplane,

and we are on duty from then on.

We wait for a fire call,

but when it's time
to go, we're ready,

and we've already done
all our prep work.

Our load is mixed
if that's the case,

and we're loading
off of that base.

And then everybody,
you know, it's go time.

Us as drivers, we can help
those guys on the ground,

you know, because
they're the real heroes.

Our pilots can help
those guys on the ground

because they put themselves
in a very dangerous situation

to protect structures
and homes and the forest,

and it's really special
to know that we can help

a little bit by mixing that load

and getting those pilots
off the ground safely

and getting them
to the fire on time

and back home to
see their families.

It's a really cool
world to be a part of.

- One of the things
we're learning

is that fire season is
no longer a fire season.

Fire season is a
year-round thing,

and we have fires
burning at a rate

that we've never seen before.

To understand the scope
of wildfires today,

we need to understand
how climate change

and the environment
impact fire systems.

We're going to talk to
Dr. Russ Schumacher,

Colorado's state
climatologist to learn more.

- My name is Russ Schumacher.

I am the state
climatologist for Colorado,

and we are here on the official

Fort Collins Weather Station.

The weather station
has been here at CSU

since the late 1800s.

Wildfires, it's always
a complicated issue,

because there's so many

factors involved, the
health of the forest itself,

whether people are
living in that area

that might be impacted,

but certainly the weather
and climate aspects

play a big part in
setting that up.

The big fire years
that we've had

in Colorado since 2000 or
so have tended to come in

the hot dry summers,
the big drought years.

The folks who kind
of study wildfires

I think are just
seeing new things

that haven't really
been observed before.

They focus on three things
when it comes to weather.

It's hot, dry, and windy.

And we saw that on
so many days in 2020,

where it was hot
and dry and windy,

and the fuels had dried out

from kind of a longer period
of it being hot and dry.

How the fires behave,

the fires creating
their own weather,

having a big wildfire set

within a day that's quite windy,

you know, that makes the
fire take off on its own.

But then within the fire itself,

you see vortices,
kind of like tornadoes

within the fire.

Since the turn of
the 21st century

here in Colorado, and
many places in the west,

we've seen this increase

in acreage burned
from wildfires,

and that's what climate models

and other analyses
have been pointing to.

We had these huge fires
burning in a time period

when that's never
really happened before.

The fires of 2020,

it really was very eye-opening.

The warming up and
drying out of the forests

that we've seen in the
last 20 years or so,

and then these big fires,

climate change is
playing a role in that.

It's not the only
thing that causes that,

but it sets up these conditions

for this explosive
kind of fire year

that we saw last year.

- Issues like wildfires
need to be approached

from every angle.

Ground crews, aviation
teams, and even lawmakers

come together to
invest in resources

and infrastructure needed
to face the new reality

of wildfires today.

- I'm Senator Bob Rankin.

I represent seven counties
in northwest Colorado,

and four of our
major fires this year

occurred in my district.

So this is one of the
most important subjects

of our legislative session

to try to be prepared
for the next fire season.

We had been seeing
increasing wildfires

for a number of years,

but this last fire season

really made an impression
on us, I think,

largely because
several of those fires

just got out of control.

The 2020 wildfire season
was the worst on record,

more than 625,000 acres burned,

more than 1,000 fires.

It's not if, it's when.

When will that next
wildfire hit us?

Every person in this
state was impacted

by the plumes of smoke,

by the change in
our air quality,

and for those of us
living in the mountains,

that kind of
day-to-day trepidation,

you know, is another
wildfire on the front

for me and my home
and my neighborhood?

We have to be thinking
in the short-term

mid-term and long-term.

So in the short-term,

what can I do to make
sure this next summer

is a safer one?

How can we prepare the state,

whether that be with
mitigation efforts,

you know, where can we
reduce the hazardous fuels

that are accumulating
in our forests?

What can we do to
restore our watersheds

that have been so heavily
damaged by wildfire?

And then how can I expand

and strengthen our
wildfire response?

And if that is
through technology

and new tools in the toolkit,

like aviation resources,

or just training firefighters

and making sure they are ready,

boots on the ground
to get out there

and tackle a fire,

it doesn't mean we can
ignore that mid and long-term

challenge around climate change.

So I hope that my
colleagues and I

will have the opportunity

to make those investments
in the right way

to ensure that Coloradans
are taken care of,

and that we protect
our great state.

- Wildfires impact everybody

from mountain communities
to wildland urban interface,

and even in cities.

Wildfires are
changing how we live.

- My name is Schelly Olsen,

and I'm the Assistant Fire Chief

at Grand Fire Protection
District Number One

here in Granby, Colorado.

Every year we get
more and more calls,

wildland fires have
been on the rise

and the most of the
fires in Grand County

that are put out.

It's when you have
those large ones

that just escape
your capabilities

and your resources, and they
just grow exponentially,

and we call that a megafire

when it's over 100,000 acres.

And we have never seen
that in Grand County.

Firefighting aircraft
is a great tool.

It can only be used in
certain circumstances

if everything is lined up.

I mean, if the
weather and the wind.

It's not the end all, be all.

You can't just drop retardant
and say the fire is out.

Retardant just
slows the fire down.

Colorado Division of Fire
Prevention and Control

with the Multi-Mission Aircraft,

an invaluable tool for us

to map the perimeter,
to look for hotspots.

- My name is Jeff Rasmussen.

I'm a MSO with the Colorado
Multi-Mission Aircraft.

I have a background
in wildland fire,

multiple capacities.

I worked on engine crews,
hotshots and smokejumpers,

and I've been here
since March of 2019.

The general role of
firefighting aviation

is to support

firefighters on the ground

and support their efforts.

And so whether it be
tankers or air attack

or an intelligence gathering
aircraft, like we have here,

it's all in support of
the effort on the ground

to suppress the wildfire.

I've definitely
witnessed an increase

in scale and
complexity of wildfires

throughout my career.

Especially in 2020,

that was kind of a
off-the-charts year

with fires like the
East Troublesome Fire

growing 100,000
acres in one day.

That was unheard of when
I started 12 years ago,

so throughout my career

fires have definitely been

gaining in complexity and size.

And the complexity part
typically comes from

the wild urban interface

where people are moving
more into the mountains

and into the woods,

and that's creating a lot of
complexity on these fires.

When you're on the ground,

intelligence and
situational awareness

is really everything, right?

And so we're able to provide
firefighters on the ground

with a broader sense of
what's going on around them,

that they wouldn't be
aware of otherwise.

Other firefighting aircraft

do participate in suppression.

Those are the tankers,

the single engine tankers
and the large air tankers

and helicopters.

They deliver retardant
and water on the fire,

which suppresses the fire enough

for those ground crews
to get in there and work.

Really all we need is a location

and a way to get a hold of

who's ever on the
ground out there.

We'll work with the
pilot to determine

if the weather is gonna be

workable in that area

and what kind of the
conditions are over there

and getting there,

and so it's a team
effort in that sense.

There's typically, on any fire,

there's multiple agencies
and jurisdictions involved

and everyone's working
towards the same goal.

- So I'm Dave Bickerstaff.

We're here at Centennial
Airport in Centennial, Colorado,

and I work for Bode Aviation.

Bode has a contract with
the state of Colorado

to provide pilots
and maintenance

for the airplane behind me.

Has a couple of different names.

this is a Pilatus PC-12.

Here in Colorado, it's known
as the Multi-Mission Aircraft.

So the job for me
specifically as a pilot

is to be here at
the airport on shift

for a 10 hour shift,

and essentially if

the Division of Fire
Prevention and Control

gets a mission, then they'll
come in, let me know,

and I'm responsible for
pre-flight in the airplane,

building a flight plan

and then flying the crew
where they need to go.

So single pilot operations
do all the coordination,

work with air traffic control.

Get pretty good at
changes on the fly,

'cause almost every
time we take off,

the plan changes and
whatever we filed is

not what we fly,

And it's kind of fun
working with Denver,

and they're really fantastic.

Shout out to the Denver
center controllers,

everybody who's a really
patient and flexible

working with us to get
where we need to go.

We could be just about anywhere
in the state in an hour,

and we have about six and a
half hours of loiter time,

depending on how close
the nearest airport is

that we can divert to.

So the aerial firefighting ops

is definitely a symphony

in terms of how it's
orchestrated and coordinated.

It's pretty neat to
see it from above,

and there's been a couple
of fires where we've watched

and there's the lead plane,

there's the air attack pilot

leading around a couple
of large tankers,

and then there's like
a couple of SEATs

zipping in and out
and some helicopters.

So it's really neat to see
how that is orchestrated.

There's a lot disparate
groups that come together

to make it happen from all over
the country, even the world.

But ultimately everyone
has the same focus,

which is trying to protect
lives and property,

minimize the damage and
get the fires under control

when they're not if we can.

- For firefighting teams,

air resources are
tools in the toolbox.

From large air
tankers to helicopters

and single engine planes,

each aircraft has a
unique capability.

With high maneuverability,

single engine air
tankers or SEATs,

are a class of aircraft

that can zip in and out
of firefighting incidents

with precision,

and when used properly,
with great effectiveness.

- So CoFire Aviation is
single engine air tankers

based on the Air Tractor 802,

and when Chris Doyle and
I formed CoFire Aviation,

we put a little
different focus on

how we were gonna go about it

in that we wanted
to put together

the safest, best performing

single engineer tanker out
there that we possibly could.

Being that we were gonna
be based in Colorado

and knew that we could
be fighting fires,

you know, as high
as 11-12,000 feet,

you need that performance to
be able to get to the fire,

to be able to
maneuver on the fire

and efficiently get
back to the airport

for another load and
back to the fire.

Typically we can point
the nose at a fire

and climb right up to
wherever that fire's at

and go to work,

where in the past,
SEATS have not had

that kind of horsepower,

and maybe had to circle around,

climbing up to
altitude further out,

taking more time to
get fire to respond.

There's a lot more fires
than what they hear about

because they only hear
about the big ones

that make the news.

And a lot of times we
catch these fires small.

We help the guys on the ground

and they're able to contain that

and it becomes a non-event.

And so nobody ever
really knows about it,

but there's a lot more
fires than what people know,

and we catch a lot of
them before they get,

before they get big
and get a big name.

So it is fun and satisfying

when you can go out and help
those guys on the ground

and save structures
or contain a fire.

It's also frustrating
when you can't go

because it's too windy

or you do go and what you
do isn't effective enough

and they still lose the
fire and lose a structure.

You can get the full
rollercoaster of

emotions throughout the season.

- For firefighting teams

and those affected
directly by the fires,

the impacts are drastic and
the lessons are profound.

- I'm Ernie Bjorkman.

Been a news journalist
for probably 40 years.

Retired two years ago,

came up to a beautiful place
called Grand Lake, Colorado.

I've been coming up here
since the 80s part-time

and I'd like to give
back to the town,

so I ran for office, I won,

and so now I'm one of
seven town trustees.

You got Grand Lake,
which is Colorado's

deepest and biggest
natural lake.

You have a lot of
boating in the summer.

You can have a lot
of paddle boarding

and you have a lot of
sports and water recreation.

Then of course,
October came along

and we kept watching the
fire down by Kremmling,

moving up to Granby,

and then the night of
October 21st, it hit here.

- The East Troublesome
would start on October 14th.

It was a fire that started
in Kremmling, near Kremmling,

you know, in the west
side of our county

and really traveled

miles and miles
very, very quickly,

you know, over 100,000
acres in one evening.

No one in the incident
management team

had ever seen
something like that

and have it move that quickly.

Things aligned and
created this, you know,

firestorm that we
saw on October 21st.

It had direct sunlight,
temperatures were higher,

the relative humidity
was very low,

the winds were
very, very strong.

You know, we ended up
unfortunately losing 366 homes,

but we saved a lot.

So, you know,
that's a big number.

It could have been much worse.

- We kept seeing smoke
to the south of us

down by Granby, Kremmling.

And then, you know, we kept
saying, oh, that's a shame.

You know, it's large
billowing smoke.

And so far there
wasn't any destruction,

it was just mostly
back in the woods,

but we knew because of all
the beetle kill up here,

that it was just
a matter of time

that that thing
was gonna spread.

This whole sky was
kind of orange smoke.

We knew that there
was no stopping it.

We heard that the
fire department

was starting a pre-evacuation
on the west side of 34,

which is the main highway
that comes into Grand Lake.

And we said, ah, no big deal.

You know, it's a pre-evacuation.

Well little did we realize,

and a lot of firefighters
didn't realize,

that first of all, we had
60 mile an hour winds.

And then within the fire itself,

it was creating a
200 mile an hour

mini weather system itself.

So that thing spread
about 16, 17 miles

in a matter of hours,

and so by seven
o'clock that night,

my wife and I are
sitting watching TV,

having a glass of wine,

and suddenly we hear there's
a mandatory evacuation.

Luckily we had gotten
some things together,

some important papers, 'cause
we said, you know what?

You never know.

The lights started
flickering in our house,

and the firefighters
were coming by

with a bullhorn saying get
out, get out immediately.

So we have basically
10 minutes to get out.

We live on one end
of Main Street,

so driving out, it was
like a thick fog of smoke.

Maybe five feet in front
of you is all you can see.

Burning embers all around us.

And I kept looking at
all these old buildings

and I said, oh my God, this
whole town is gonna go up.

But the nice relief
was firefighters from

numerous, numerous agencies
had lined this street.

They were like soldiers
ready to take on the enemy.

When we left town, I said,

we don't know if we're gonna
come back to a town or not.

If it wasn't for
those firefighters,

this place would have burned,
because any of those embers

could have hit one of
these wooden porches

and put the whole town on fire.

I firmly believe that
the aerial firefighters

really stopped the spread

until they couldn't fly
anymore on that day,

and that's the day
that really affected us

and had to evacuate out of town.

- I know at my house,

I ended up losing a
house in Grand Lake,

and at 3000 some
degrees, you know,

everything just turns to dust,

and that's really what happened.

It was so incredibly hot.

Grand County has never had to

go through something like this.

- With fire seasons
intensifying each year,

new approaches are advancing

firefighting team's
abilities to fight fires.

One of these methods used is
infrared camera technology

to map, track, and even predict
what a fire will do next.

Now we'll hear from Camille
Calibeo to learn exactly how.

- How do infrared cameras work?

We use infrared cameras
to detect and fight fires,

but how do they work
and why infrared?

First let's talk about
what infrared actually is.

We can't see infrared
with our own eyes,

but we can see it with
special infrared cameras

that we use for a
variety of things,

including detecting
and fighting fires.

Instead of taking a
visual image of an object

or area of interest,

infrared cameras
take a thermal image

by measuring the temperature
of each pixel in the image.

We can then apply a color scheme

to these temperature readings,

to visualize hotter and
colder parts of the image.

We use infrared cameras for
firefighting in many ways.

We can monitor rising
temperature spots

to detect where a fire might
start before it ignites.

We can also take
temperature readings

of a fire that is
already burning

to help firefighters
make informed decisions

about where to target their
firefighting activities.

Infrared cameras
have changed the way

we detect and fight fires

because they allow us
to monitor the fire

even with a thick smoke
cover that limits our ability

to see the flames
with our own eyes.

Infrared cameras
are placed on board

firefighting planes
and helicopters,

but they are also
used on satellites

to provide even more data

to firefighters and
local officials.

- From satellite cameras

to Colorado's own Pilatus
PC-12 Multi-Mission Aircraft,

infrared technology is
empowering ground crews

from the sky like never before.

- My name is Andrea Drinkhouse,

and I'm one of the
MSOs that we have here,

which is the mission
sensor operators

that ride in the
back of the plane

and do the fire mapping

or tactical infrared

or anything they needed
from us back there.

So we use the camera,
move the camera around

to see what's below the plane.

When there's tons of smoke,

especially it seems
like this last year,

it happened more than it
did the previous year,

probably 'cause the fires were
so much bigger this last year.

but with all that smoke,

normally you would have an air
attack platform flying around

or you'd have
helicopters flying around

and they can give ground crews

situational awareness
about what's happening,

but with all that smoke,
they couldn't see anything,

and they were all grounded,

but we were still
able to be up flying

through the smoke
and the clouds,

and we were usually
above the smoke,

but we could look down
with our infrared camera

and we could scan
around and we could see

where all the fire was.

We could see where
the heat or spots were

with the infrared.

It was a hotshot crew member
who was our ground contact.

We told them it's right along,
you know, this berm area,

we think we see like a dozer
right here on this edge part.

So lat-long plus just the
description of where it was.

So he takes off on his quad,

goes over to wherever it is,

we continue on our flight path,

'cause we're still, again,

looping up and down to
any other spots we find.

And he called back on the
radio and he was like,

yeah, I found the spot.

It's one inch by three
inches in a dozer berm.

I don't know how you found that.

At one point, we were just
writing down like a list

of lat-longs, and like every
time we get like three or four,

we would call down to
our ground contact.

Goal of the program is to do
detection where we're flying

and we try to find fires
when they're really small.

- When I was on the
ground as an engine boss

running an engine crew,

this data wasn't
even present to me.

This wasn't something
that we had access to.

It was definitely not real time
data or near real time data.

And that's probably the
biggest leap we've made

with this platform is that

it is near real time data.

The biggest thing is just the

increasing need
for more bandwidth,

for data connectivity.

As a ground crew member,
at some point in time,

I'm gonna be able to
just pick up my iPhone

or my Android device or whatever
I'm using for a smartphone

and just hit a couple
buttons on an app

and instantly have
that data in real time.

The air resources,
they are expensive,

but you have to weigh the cost
of that expensive resource

with the overall cost of
fighting a very large fire

that gets completely
out of hand.

- Large scale, we
really need to do more.

We are definitely
still in recovery mode,

which is a tricky place to be

when you're looking at
the next season of fire.

And having gone through it now,

even more so important,

because yes, it
can happen to us.

- Wildfires continue
to grow in frequency,

intensity, and complexity,

and at the same time,

new applications of
aviation resources,

investments in infrastructure

and innovations in technology

are providing aviation
firefighting teams

with new ways to approach
these major challenges.

Wildfires are not going
away anytime soon,

and in part two,

we'll explore how
these new technologies

may shape the future of
aviation firefighters.

(upbeat music)