CENTENNIAL, Colo. - The Colorado National Guard is supporting incident commanders at three different fires throughout Colorado; the West Fork complex fire, the East Peak fire and the Lime Gulch fire.
A roundup of assignments:
West Fork Complex Fire
- Fourteen Colorado National Guard Soldiers of the 1157th Engineer Firefighting Company, along with their high capacity off-road firefighting trucks and water tenders, are supporting firefighting efforts at the West Fork Complex fire.
- National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are arriving to man multiple checkpoints around the fire area in support of local law enforcement.
- Colorado Air National Guard Airmen are arriving to providing a phone, Internet and radio communications platform to facilitate communications between civil and military authorities.
- Colorado Army National Guard Soldiers are arriving to provide geographic imaging support to the incident commander.
East Peak Fire
- One Colorado Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter and crew with Bambi Bucket capable of dropping up to 2,000 gallons of water at a time.
- Colorado Army National Guard helicopters have dropped more than 131,000 gallons of water on the East Peak fire as of June 23.
- Colorado Army National Guard Soldiers are manning multiple checkpoints around the fire area in support of the Huerfano County Sheriff.
- Fifteen Soldiers are providing firefighting support on wildland fire hand-crew teams.
- Colorado Air National Guard Airmen are providing a phone, Internet and radio communications platform to facilitate communications between civil and military authorities.
Lime Gulch Fire
- One UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter outfitted with a hoist is on standby for medevac and search-and-rescue operations, if needed.
Also, two additional Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System-equipped military C-130 Hercules joined the fight against the Colorado fires.
The U.S. Forest Service requested the additional aircraft through the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.
Two aircraft from the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing, based in Port Hueneme, Calif., deployed to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. They join two C-130s from Air Force Reserve Command's 302nd Airlift Wing, based at Peterson, which have been engaged in aerial firefighting for more than a week.
The two California aircraft bring the MAFFS fleet to four airplanes.
The request is in response to an increase in wild fires in southern Colorado and neighboring states and the significant fire potential forecast for the coming week, officials said.
MAFFS initially activated June 11 to assist in fighting forest fires in southern Colorado after the Forest Service sent a request for assistance to the Defense Department through U.S. Northern Command. Since activating, MAFFS aircraft have made 36 drops using 93,830 gallons of fire retardant.
MAFFS is a self-contained aerial firefighting system owned by the Forest Service. MAFFS modules are loaded into the cargo bays of military C-130 aircraft.
Led by small Forest Service planes, military aircrews can discharge 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant from the MAFFS modules along the leading edge of a forest fire in less than five seconds and cover an area a quarter of a mile long by 100 feet wide. Once the load is discharged, ground crews at a MAFFS tanker base can refill the modules in less than 12 minutes.
Contributing: The 145th Air Expeditionary Group
Last Updated: Monday, June 25, 2013 at 9:08am EST.