DENVER – Legislators set aside $19 million this week to put Colorado in the aerial firefighting business.
Proponents said Thursday that their plan will focus on using the expensive aircraft not for political reasons, but only when experience shows they can make a difference.
“Air support does not put out wildfires. Air support contains wildfires,” said Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction. “It’s the people on the ground who are putting out those fires.”
The money will come from the state’s emergency reserve and a savings account for hazardous material cleanups.
King amended his Senate Bill 164 Thursday to mirror a report by the state’s top firefighting official, Paul Cooke, that recommends the state buy two spotter planes and contract for three helicopters and four single-engine air tankers.
The Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing Thursday on SB 164 but delayed taking a vote until Monday, to give senators more time to study the cost. However, the bill is expected to pass easily because money has already been set aside for it.
In recent years, Colorado has had only a few single-engine tankers on contract during the summer. But the small planes are best suited for quickly getting to a fire when it’s still small.
“The single engine air tankers have proven their worth and their effectiveness in Colorado. It’s not what you see on TV,” Cooke said.
Spotter planes equipped with infrared cameras will be a valuable new tool for fire managers to pinpoint fires and decide whether they need to be fought or whether they can burn naturally, Cooke said.
Tony Kern of El Paso County proposed the idea of a Colorado-based fleet last year. He was the U.S. Forest Service director of aviation from 2000 to 2004.
Still, Kern said the effectiveness of air tankers against large, wind-driven fires is “dubious at best.”
Yet fire managers use them because they are a visual symbol of vigorous firefighting that politicians and the public demand.
“When I was director of Forest Service aviation, some of these fires we knew weren’t going to go out until the snow fell. Yet we were putting tankers up on them every day,” Kern said.
Colorado will not contract for large air tankers this year. Large tankers can still be ordered through the national dispatch system, as in previous years.
However, the work to restore the dwindling federal fleet is proceeding slowly. Also on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D_Colo., sent letters to the Forest Service and three tanker companies asking why the companies have not delivered on their contracts to provide five next-generation air tankers.
Two companies will deliver on their tanker contracts, Udall said.
“I am deeply concerned that delivery of the remaining five will be further delayed and unavailable for the 2014 wildfire season. This is unacceptable,” Udall wrote to the Forest Service.
joeh@cortezjournal.com