“If there’s a fire today, I’m first out,” said the California native, who’s stationed in Ellensburg.
That call never came Wednesday, but Garcia and the other members of the helicopter-based quick-response team got some experience anyway. They were gathered at Cle Elum Municipal Airport, responding to a mock fire as news media watched.
They used a windswept meadow as base, loading baskets for cargo drops and water drops while getting valuable time with real equipment and real helicopters.
“Today is a great opportunity for our program to get some real hands-on training with the helicopters, with all the fuel trucks and with all the radios, so that we are as proficient as we can be when it comes to actually doing our task when the fires start to go off later this summer,” said helitack crew member Aaron Siebol of Ellensburg.
This will be his sixth season fighting fires, and he’s learned over that time that preseason exercises like Wednesday’s are important for building the camaraderie helitack crews need. The past month spent training in Ellensburg goes part way in establishing that, but actually doing a job together — even on a mock fire — is where those bonds get solidified, Siebol said.
“The stakes are a little bit higher, so it’s important that we all work together and communicate effectively,” he said.
The DNR’s helitack team, which includes 40 members and eight UH1H helicopters, will rotate among four locations this fire season: Ellensburg, Dallesport, Deer Park and Omak. It is designed for instant response, getting personnel and equipment to fires as soon as they start — or, in the case of predicted lightning storms, before they even start. That means between now and the end of fire season this fall, crews must be ever-ready for when a call comes in.
“Our goal is to have the blades turning within five minutes,” said Joe Thorpe, DNR helitack operations manager.
Last year, an especially bad fire season, the helitack team made 178 initial responses. This year isn’t expected to be as bad. If so, the crew can expect a more typical 100 to 150 responses, Thorpe said.
Last year, they weren’t able to meet their goal of keeping fires smaller than 10 acres in every instance, but they slowed the progress of dozens of fires.
The helitack crews’ ability to get closer to fires faster than ground crews allows them to transport personnel, equipment and water before fires get out of control, said Elliott Tonning, a helitack squad boss.
“It’s critical,” he said. “A lot of the reasoning behind helitack is we can get to places other firefighters can’t get to.”
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