Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 19/00) - The image of a water bomber sweeping through the smoke-filled sky, dumping a sheet of water on a raging inferno below is the glory of modern forest fire fighting.

Fire Facts - 27 fires have been reported up to deadline, of which 11 are still active. - 296 hectares of forest have been burned this year. - Fire danger is extreme in the South Slave and most of the North Slave and people are being urged to use extreme caution with fire. - High forest fire danger is in Inuvik, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic, Fort Good Hope, Rae Lakes, and Rae-Edzo. - On Friday, one person-caused-fire was reported on an Island in Lac La Marte.

And while it may take guts to pilot the plane through the low-level assault, it takes a team to keep that aircraft ready to go -- anywhere in the NWT or throughout Canada -- on short notice.

At Buffalo Airways, personnel and equipment have been ready to go since May 25.

For the sixth year, Buffalo is under contract to provide aerial fire fighting services for the GNWT's department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. The company is also available to fight fires anywhere in Canada, on an as-needed basis.

Owner Joe McBryan said the company can muster an army of workers and a fleet of aircraft.

"With our combined services -- charter and fire -- we will employ in excess of 200 people and 32 aircraft."

Those aircraft have to be ready to fight any type of fire.

"We have the potential to go chemical or water depending on the nature of the fire and what it's burning in," explained McBryan.

At his hangar, McBryan said pilots don't deserve all the limelight. Nearby, the aircraft maintenance engineers were busy getting planes ready to be airborne at a moment's notice.

This year that includes a crew of summer students from Buffalo's aircraft maintenance engineering school.

Levels of alert

It can be an exciting time for the Buffalo crews, and McBryan remembers what it was like in previous years.

"You lived, ate and slept in the airplanes. You certainly got a rush as crews of airplanes would fly in and work to contain the fire. It's what keeps crews coming back year after year."

Everyone on call at Buffalo carries a pager. At the beginning of the day they are paged and told the level of alert.

Green is the lowest level of alert, and means a day off. Blue means those on call have 60 minutes to get to the airport and have planes airborne, while yellow gives them 30 minutes to do the same. Those on red alert they are already on the base, reading books or watching television, just waiting for the call to get airborne.

"It's almost identical to being at a fire hall," said operations manager and tanker pilot Marc Vanderaegen. "It's just like being at home but you're stuck behind the fence." Vanderaegen said the pilot's job of flying tanker aircraft is not much different than other types of flying.

"It can be a lot harder to get into a small community on a charter in bad weather than it is to fly a water bomber," he said. "You know what you have to contend with. it has a lot to do with shared communication."

Dispatchers who make sure pilots are well informed of the smoke and weather conditions, play a critical communication role.

The waterbombers fly above 100 feet above the treeline, which may seem dangerous, but no one carries out any action unless they are 100 per cent confident it's safe, he said.

"This requires the right training, just like normal flying," Vanderaegen explained. "There's no mystique or magic about it, it's just flying the way you're trained."

Equipment and technology

Buffalo Airways has 11 tankers at several bases throughout the North, including Hay River, Fort Smith and Yellowknife, each specializing in their own area.

Four CL-215s, two DC-4s, three Cansos and two other backup aircraft carry either fire retardant or water to the fire zone. The company also has nine smaller "bird-dog" planes, used to scout out and assess fire situations.

"What has really happened over the years is that technology has fallen down the line to tanker operators," McBryan explained. "In previous years we've updated the tankers to have computer-controlled retardant delivery systems and this is the first year we've introduced a turbine-powered King Air aircraft. So, each year we're moving ahead."