[COham] Waldo Canyon, 5 Years Later.

[Paul Signorelli]

I found my old report on an old computer with details about the Waldo Canyon fire:
It started 5 Years ago.  28-29 June 2012.
Paul   w0rw

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i live about 7 miles away from Waldo Canyon.

i was driving east on Highway 24 out of Divide a few hours after it started, pretty scary...
It had a big mushroom cloud at first.
The east side of Highway 24 is now charred in a few places but the fire damage
isn't really too noticeable.
If the fire had jumped Highway 24 (Also known as the Ute Pass),
 it would have gone up the north side of Pikes Peak.
When they could not stop the fire from Queens canyon, with the high wind
conditions, it got over the top of the last ridge and down into the Mountain Shadows area.

The winds pushing it were from thunder storm outflow , not like the Santa Ana Winds that can last for weeks.

If you have never been around a fire like this, here is what happens:
The local fire departments were first to hike into the fire area.
Waldo Canyon was a popular hiking trail that runs 3 miles back into the hills
from Highway 24 just west of Manitou Springs, CO.
The subsequent rains after the fire caused a lot of flooding where the river crossed HWY 24 and a lot of flooding in Manitou Springs.

When i went by the Canyon on HWY24 the USFS already had about 20
trucks there at the trail head.

The USFS sends a spotter plane in to direct all the fire fighting efforts.
This plane was called "Waldo Air Attack".
They set up at TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) air perimeter
and no other aircraft are allowed to enter without approval.
The Incident Commander sets a map perimeter around the fire (Assigning sectors
A through Z, clockwise around the fire) and then assigns Division
Chiefs to each each sector.

The "Air Attack" orbits the fire at around 1000 feet above the fire and directs all
the other aircraft into the fire and relays ground support requests.
He is the air traffic controller for the fire zone.

The Waldo Fire had about 10 choppers flying around one day.

When they need slurry Bombers they send in another "Lead"
plane. The "Lead" plane orbits 500 feet below "Air Attack" and He (or She -
Great job Mary) becomes the flight controller for the Bombers.

The "Air Attack" assigns the slurry targets and the "Lead" plane  guides
the bombers into the target. Many of the Bomber pilots have never seen
the terrain so the "Lead" plane will make a first pass run at the target.
This is called a "Show Me" pass and He sprays a little water or smoke so the
bomber can see the exact drop target.

This BLM Procedure is at:
< http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nifc/directives.Par.58885.File.dat/i\
mof&a2003008a1.pdf>

The "Air Attack" must clear all of the fire guys on the ground out of the target
zone before the drop, and He keeps all of the choppers about 2 miles away.
He tells all aircraft what is happening so they don't have any collisions.
When the Bombers are returning to base for reloading, the "Lead" plane calls in
the water bucket drops from the choppers to reduce the smoke over the target so the
Bombers can see the target.
Most of the Bombers fly at 120 Knots during the drop and they
accelerated during the drop as they loose mass.

We had 4 MAFF's (Military C130's) assigned to the fire also. They are like big
spray paint canisters. They can make up to a quarter mile splash
and can vary the spay width. They lost #7 in South Dakota last year.

The "Air Attack" has a Pilot and a Fire Boss. The Fire Boss is directing the
Fire Suppression Operations and working 2 radios with 3 frequencies each.
He has to control all the choppers on VHF AM and all the aircraft on VHF FM.
He gets them assigned to a division and then switches the to a secondary air to
ground frequency or hands them off to the "Lead" plane for slurry drops.
The "Air Attack" is usually orbiting over the fire zone for 12 hours in 3 or 4
shifts. The  "Lead" plane is a usually a single seat plane.

The guys on the ground work 12 hours on and 12 hours off. We had around 1500
fire fighters working on Waldo.

The community really appreciated the work of the fire fighters. Several
restaurants had signs reading "Free Hamburgers for Firefighters".

i did a little fire work in the past.
See CQ Mag. June 2010, p.60-63.
i even spent the night in a 'Spike Camp' on Blue Mt, Not a SOTA Mt.
You can see a current story by Scott Harrison at:
<http://www.krdo.com/news/top-stories/fifth-anniversary-of-waldo-canyon-fire-remembered-friday-in-colorado-springs/557941419>.
KRDO  will be showing a special Video at 10pm, Saturday or Sunday.

Now you can watch the Waldo Web Stream Cam at:
< http://co.water.usgs.gov/webcams/waldo/>

Paul  W0RW