Specialized Equipment In Casper To Fight Fires [GALLERY,VIDEO]
With the size of the Sheep Herder Hill fire in excess of 15,000 acres, all the stops have been pulled and the equipment has been ordered in to fight it.
As you can imagine, the Natrona County International Airport has been a hub of activity with lots of aerial firefighting aircraft flying to and from the Casper Mountain fires. Some of the equipment includes single engine air tankers which have been flying in groups of 2 (4 total aircraft) operating from the portable tanker base that was established for the DC-10 and other large air tankers. There are a number of helicopters on site as well to supplement the one that has been flying missions.
As of yesterday morning there have been 5 SEATs (Single Engine Air Tankers) operating in 2 flights of 2 and 3 aircraft each. Refill time is about 5 min per aircraft.
And the granddaddy of them all, arrived at 3:30 pm Monday afternoon,weighing in at 385,000 pounds,and able to drop 11,700 gallons of retardant, the DC-10 makes an impressive addition to the air support that has come in.
In addition to all of that, Governor Matt Mead has called on the services of the Wyoming Air National Guard and two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and their support teams are headed to Casper today.
Here is a peek at the SEAT's coming thru
Here is the Erickson Air Crane in action
And here is a look at that big DC 10 in action
Our thanks to Glen Januska and the crew at the NCIA for the access to the videos and the great pics of these machines on the ground.