Fire duty: ESRD Air Attack Program at Pincher Creek Airport

J. Jorgensen photos

Justine Jorgensen

On Thursday July 31 Air Attack Officer Kelly Krywiak visited Rotary as a guest speaker. Krywiak is a member of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) - essentially, he helps fight forest fires from the air. "I am the forestry representative. I have spent many years on the ground, as a ground firefighter. I am responsible for all the air strategies and tactics used by the helicopters, tankers and bombers." This is his fifth year in the Air Attack Program and his thirteenth fire season overall. His tanker group of four is currently based out of the Forestry Air Base at the Pincher Creek Municipal Airport for the summer.


"The tanker pilots and myself are here for an extended time," Krywiak explained. They have three different status alerts: Red means they are at the tanker base - if they receive a dispatch, their wheels have to be rolling within five minutes. Yellow leaves them thirty minutes to get into the air, and Blue is 1.1 hours. Nine different tanker groups are working in Alberta, on contracts that run from May to September; additional aircraft can be called in throughout the season, based on hazard.

In total, Krywiak has responded to seventeen fires this season. "The hotter it is, the drier it is, the larger the potential for a large forest fire," he explained. "It's all about time. How fast we can get to the fire, how fast we can get retardant, or water, or ground personnel on that fire."

"We want to make sure we capture that fire before it gets to a large size and hard to control. If a fire gets large enough, it can create it's own weather, and that's fairly challenging." Three things determine how a fire is going to burn: fuel, weather, and topography. "Those three factors are going to basically determine how a fire is going to behave."

The Southern Rockies District is run out of Calgary Fire Center. The general process for Forestry is that strategically placed lookouts watch for smoke, fire, and lightning strikes - they report to the Center, which then looks at the resources, and dispatches teams. “We have meteorologists in Edmonton that monitor the weather. How much moisture, and where lightening is. Lightening and human cause is probably our two primary causes of ignition. We do a weather briefing every morning at 10:30 am, and they place resources according to that,” Krywiak explained.

The group utilizes two aircraft. One is a Lockheed L-188 Electra, outfitted with a 2,500 gallon tank, and the other a small Turbo Commander 690 (known as the Bird Dog). The big tanker is land-based, meaning it must return to the airport to reload. It carries a red retardant; "It's basically a phosphorous-based fertilizer. We call that a long term fire retardant, because even after the water in that mixture has evaporated, it still holds its fire protective qualities," said Krywiak. Other  tanker models skim water off lakes, then a foam is added into the water. "As soon as that water evaporates, that load is no longer effective."*

Lockheed L-188 Electra - the big tanker

Inside the Electra

As the tanker does not have the maneuverability, in the event of a fire the Bird Dog heads out first, assuring a clear enough path for the tanker. "I'll talk to all the other forest personnel that are heading to the fire and we'll come up with a game plan," Krywiak explained - he flies with Gerry Noble, the Bird Dog pilot. Then the tanker is brought through to release the retardant. "If the fire's growing, I'll send him back to get reloaded, and we'll stay overhead the fire and coordinate the helicopters so that we can still attack the fire from an aerial perspective."

Turbo Commander 690 - Bird Dog

It takes several years to attain the positions that these men hold. In order to become an air attack officer, one has to start on the ground as a firefighter and gain a certain amount of experience. After eventually moving to a supervisor role, at least five years of supervising is needed, then one can be considered a candidate in the Air Attack Program. A two-year training program follows, consisting of going through all the different tanker groups and getting to know how to utilize all of them. Finally comes a check-ride - if passed, one can go solo as an air attack officer.

Noble, pilot of the Bird Dog, attested to the many years of work he had to complete to gain his position. "I've been doing this since 2000 and just started this year in the Bird Dog." He explained that one has to first get the private, then commercial, then multi-engine license, then IFR (instrument flight rules). After that, experience and hours need to be gained in all kinds of airplanes. When applying for a job like his, he mentioned around a minimum of three thousand hours was needed; generally, it takes people around ten years until they can get a similar job, or one in the airlines.

"You don't do this type of flying- it's dangerous flying and you got to think a lot, be thinking. You know it's not just sit back cruise altitude with autopilot on," Noble responded, when asked what the draw was, for him. "Very challenging flying. You're multi-tasking a lot. Yeah, it's a lot of fun but it's also really stressful." Mike Hogan and Tony Blake are the pilots for the big tanker. It takes so many years to really 'move up' in aviation that Hogan, the captain, said, "You really have to have the 'HBD' (Hot Burning Desire)."

*corrected for accuracy