On a bright, sunny morning at the Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, several state and local agencies gather around a map to get a briefing about the South Sheep Fire near Ralph Price Reservoir. It鈥檚 a fake fire, but they want to run through training like it鈥檚 the real deal.
鈥淚n the incident action plan, there鈥檚鈥he incident objectives, which would be stated like they would be on a wildland fire,鈥� Erin Doyle, operation specialist with Boulder Fire Rescue, said to the crews. 鈥淲e have the QR codes that will take you to the incident action plan, geo reference versions of the pilot map, as well as the operations map.鈥�
Last year, Colorado鈥檚 Front Range saw four wildfires in the course of one week, causing one death, around 30 destroyed homes, and thousands of resident evacuations. Around 10,000 acres burned in total.
This annual targeted aerial training has been going on for more than a decade, but it has gotten bigger and evolved over time. It now involves several agencies, such as the Colorado Army National Guard, the USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and fire teams from other states like Nebraska and South Dakota.
The goal of these exercises is to iron out communication and protocol kinks before it鈥檚 too late. Some of the crews have never worked with aircraft before.
鈥淭he big thing that we look for is the pilots to become more comfortable with talking to firefighters on the ground, getting that terminology and standardization,鈥� Cameron Meganck with the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control said. 鈥淲e're doing this training so that we're all on the same page.鈥�
Meganck said they often use past wildfire situations and feedback from fire agencies as a guide.
鈥淲e want to be able to give as much as we can for the resources at hand, being able to take the previous season before and kind of adapt to it, of, 鈥楾his is what we want to do for the upcoming training,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淲e want to complicate this a little bit more, add some challenge.鈥�
Sonia Straka, an aviation specialist with the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said this training sets up teams for success. A few years back, there was a fire in the same area where they did training weeks prior.
鈥淲e were ready to go because of this training,鈥� she said. 鈥淚'm thrilled to still be a part of it (the training) and add to our complexities, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and learn to adapt in a training scenario.鈥�
The crews start by getting an update on the weather and winds, as well as how the practice 鈥渇ire鈥� has progressed overnight. Doyle is direct in his instructions and takes the training seriously.
鈥淐lear communication, strong leadership and a commitment to teamwork will be essential,鈥� Doyle said.
They're told that they鈥檙e shorter staffed than they were the day before, and they have fewer helicopters and buckets to work with. They also get an understanding of what they could have done better. Meganck said ground teams need to work on their communication with the aircraft.
Eric Shelton with the Colorado Army National Guard made sure to encourage his team and remind them to be safe in the skies.
鈥淲e want to make sure that we're making the right decision,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we've got to call the training early, call the training early. There's no reason to be up there and have something rolling on top of us.鈥�
After the briefing, crews made their way out to Black Hawk helicopters and took off. Each one carried huge water buckets over the fire zone that dumped around 600 gallons per drop. They also mimicked retardant drops with puffs of smoke.
Back at the control center, the air base radio operator kept in touch with pilots and crew members over radio. They鈥檙e listening to several frequencies at once to monitor traffic, weather, and understand how the air attack is going.
鈥淐lear to drop...good start, good line, have a little bit of a drip,鈥� said one of the crew members through the radio. 鈥淲e鈥檒l probably bring ya about 100 yards to the right.鈥�
Federal fire forecasters predict Colorado will see normal fire danger in May, but state and local agencies still want to improve their firefighting strategy ahead of the summer.
鈥淲e don't want to see the state on fire. It's something that nobody here, none of the residents, want,鈥� Shelton said. 鈥淏ut if it does happen, we want to make sure that we're here, we're ready to go, and if it's going to happen, we're going to be there to help support it.鈥�
