Firefighting Aircraft Contract Cancelled--Homes Burn

Two years ago there were more than 40 aircraft that could be used for fighting forest fires, now there are eleven and four of those have been grounded due to a crash.  Our brave fire fighters are trying to put out the massive blazes with one hand tied behind their backs. Those of you who have lost your homes in Colorado and elsewhere, can thank the Obama Administration for the cancellation of a contract for most of these planes.

Please understand that we have no problem with the government making sure that the planes are used to fight these fires are airworthy. No one wants the pilots and others on the ground being hurt because one of these planes crash due to a failure. However, someone should be responsible to ensure that there are enough planes to fight the inevitable fires that occur each year around the country.

It is ironic that the U.S. Forest Service http://theintelhub.com/2012/04/04/usda-orders-326000-rounds-of-ammunition-as-homeland-security-stays-quiet-over-450-million-round-order/  can buy thousands of bullets (for what reason, we do not know maybe the elk are arming themselves) but cannot contract with sufficient companies to provide planes to put out fires. 

The entire purpose of the government is to protect us, in this case, against fire in the forest.  Yet, here is a glaring example of them not meeting their responsibilities.  Who should we hold responsible? Obviously, no public servant will ever fess up or be brought up on charges for making this blunder.  

Government never is competent, it is incompetent by its vary nature. You have bosses without any investment in the outcome and who are not graded by the results of their output who manage employees whose mantra is "that is not my job" while being politically correct and not wanting to "rock the boat." Everyone works 9-5 and does not take work home. To expect exceptional work from these drones, is foolhardy.

We can point to example after example of things going haywire and no one being held responsible. It seems  the only people who get fired are those who want to improve things, troublemakers by name.  So when we see the Forest Service slashing their contracted fleet, no one, in government, seems concerned.  

However, if your home burns, you know there is a real cost to this incompetency.  We feel sorry for those who have or will lose their homes this summer, whose loss will be personal and no one will be held to account for not doing their job. Shame on everyone in the U.S.  Forest Service from Smokey the Bear on down!  You all should lose your jobs or pay for those whose houses you have destroyed by your incompetency!

Conservative Tom

U.S. Forest Service Firefighting Fleet Depleted After Contract Cancellation

Michael Sandoval

June 27, 2012 at 9:06 pm

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An Obama administration decision to cancel a government contract for aerial firefighting planes in 2011 has left the U.S. Forest Service’s airborne fleet depleted as rapidly moving wildfires spread throughout the state of Colorado and elsewhere in the country amid excessive heat and extremely dry weather conditions.

The reduction in the number of planes—from more than 40 to just 11—ended a 50-year relationship between the Forest Service and Aero Union, which provided the planes, and 60 jobs, fighting fires. The Forest Service cited an airworthiness inspection program as one reason for terminating the contract, despite the company’s insistence that it had passed its annual inspection.

“Our main priority is protecting and saving lives, and we can’t in good conscience maintain an aviation contract where we feel lives may be put at risk due to inadequate safety practices,” said one Forest Service official.

A pair of tanker crashes, including one earlier this month, has further reduced the number of immediately available aircraft to just nine.

Calls for a review of Forest Service planning related to the nation’s aging and inadequate fleet came from four lawmakers in a letter sent in March 2012 by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to the Government Accountability Office.

Speeding up the agency’s slow-moving long-term strategy process would be necessary should another record-breaking year of wildfires strike in 2012, the Washington Post noted as early as February, but the push to replace the entire fleet of large aircraft has stretched out over at least a decade.

Air tanker crashes in 2002, including one in Colorado, put pressure on the Forest Service to weed out many dilapidated planes, including converted tankers from the 1940s and 1950s that were showing signs of excessive wear from the demanding stress of fighting fires. Tankers across the country were grounded temporarily as a precaution following the crash.

The Forest Service’s own estimates call for as many as 18-28 “next generation” large air tankers to meet the nation’s firefighting requirements. As a stopgap, the Forest Service has tapped into preexisting arrangements with the state of Alaska, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, and the military to deploy an additional 16 large air tankers.

But recent news from the Forest Service announcing plans for seven new firefighting aircraft from contracts awarded to four different firms will not provide immediate relief, as only three tankers will be available this year (but not, perhaps, for several months), and the remaining four will be delivered in 2013.