Helitack crews are teams of wildland firefighters who are transported by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

s. Helicopters provide rapid transport, enabling helitack crews to quickly respond and assess a wildfire situation. Helitack crews may land near a wildfire or, if equipped and trained, rappel from a hovering helicopter. Once on the ground, crews build firelines using hand tools, chainsaws, and other firefighting tools. They often remain overnight in remote locations. After they have completed their assignment, crew members may pack up to 120 pounds of equipment over difficult terrain to reach a pick-up point. Rappellers often prepare helispots (helicopter landing zones) that provide better access to a fire. Helicopter crew members may also perform other duties such as tree falling, firing operations, and managing helibases.

Terminology

Helitack

The term ''helitack'' first appeared in a 1956 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' article, which described the "first of a series of tests—tabbed the Helitack Program—on the use of helicopters in firefighting will start next week in the San Bernardino National Forest". The word itself is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words"Fire-Fighting Copter Tests Start in Forest", ''Los Angeles Times''
June 10, 1956, page A23, cited at the Double-Tongued Dictionary, accessed October 15, 2007

Helibase

The incident helibase is the location from which incident helicopter support missions are flown, and where the helicopters assigned to that base are parked, serviced, and refueled. Usually a helibase is in a field location that is close enough to the Incident Base Camp so that supplies and personnel can be ferried by ground to the helibase from the camp in a timely manner. More remote helibases (i.e., nearer the fire) can be established to maximize efficiency and reduce flight costs. Occasionally, helibases are located at a nearby airport or backcountry airstrip. The name of the base is designated by the name of the incident, though on large fires there can be multiple helibases. Helibases are staffed with a Helibase Manager, Deck Coordinator, Landing and Takeoff Coordinator, Aircraft Base Radio Operator, and numerous subsidiary positions operating in a Helibase Operations trailer or out on the landing pads. Crash rescue capability is usually assigned to the larger helibases. An "H" in a circle designates a helibase on an incident map.

Helispot

A helispot is an American term for a location near a fire where it is safe for helicopters to land and take off. At this designated location, a helispot manager and usually a few helitack crewmembers will be onsite to coordinate landings and take-offs as well as the manifesting, loading and unloading of equipment and personnel. Helispots are temporarily located as the incident grows and can be found on ridges, meadows, parking lots – in short, any clearing suitable and meeting rotor clearance and hazard (wires, trees, etc.) avoidance requirements. Helispots are found on the incident map by filled in circles with the letters H-# next to it, the # designating what number it is.NIMS 3.04 Helispots are approved by a pilot and a qualified helicopter manager before being used.

Drop point

A helicopter drop point, or drop point is similar to a helispot, but used for depositing, often via longline, and caching supplies. Helicopters and supply vehicles use the drop point to off-load supplies at the edge of an incident for the ground teams to come by and pick up. Drop points may be located all around the fire. Wildland firefighters will usually pick up sharpened tools, pumps and hoses, water, food, radio batteries, etc. at the drop points. On an incident map, the symbol for a drop point is a filled dot with the letters D-# next to them with the # designating which number is it.

Methodology

A helitack helicopter will launch with a crew on board, drop them in the vicinity of the fire (or "incident") where they will begin clearing a

firebreak A firebreak or double track (also called a fire line, fuel break, fireroad and firetrail in Australia) is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebr ...

with standard hand tools, while the helicopter can then support the team with water drops, either with a Bambi bucket or airframe-mounted water tanks, or ferry in additional personnel (e.g., hotshot crews). If the fire continues to grow beyond the initial attack phase, the mission of the helitack crew shifts to a support role, locating and operating at helispots and helibases, where the coordination of the support required for other firefighting helicopters.Gross, Gregory A. "Elite, mobile fire crew might soon be permanent here", ''San Diego Union-Tribune'', November 16, 2004, accessed October 15, 2007
In a situation where terrain or vegetation height make it impossible for a helicopter to land, helitack methodology can also employ rappellers,

rappelling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling the person descending controls their own movement down the rope, in contrast to low ...

from a helicopter as high as 250 feet above the ground or deplaning crews from a hovering helicopter (heli-jumping). When backfires, or "prescribed burns" are needed in remote areas, helitack helicopters can be used to start them, using a "helitorch", a

driptorch A driptorch is a tool used in wildfire suppression, controlled burning, and other forestry applications to intentionally ignite fires by dripping flaming fuel onto the ground. Description The driptorch consists of a canister for holding fuel ...

suspended on a cable under the helicopter, or by dropping plastic sphere dispenser (PSD) ignition devices. In the event that a firefighter on the ground is injured, the helitack helicopter is used to evacuate the victim to a medical facility.

History

Helicopters were used in combating wildfires in California as early as 1947 and their usefulness at moving personnel rapidly around a fire was quickly recognized. Initially, helicopters were just used for tactical and logistical support for ground crews."Helicopters: Multitasking aircraft", U.S. Department of Forestry
/ref> In 1957 the Los Angeles County Fire Department experimentally used a

Bell 47 The Bell 47 is a single-rotor single-engine light helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It was based on the third Bell 30 prototype, which was the company's first helicopter designed by Arthur M. Young. The 47 became the first he ...

to lay hoses using belly mounted trays.Smith, Barry D.: ''Fire Bombers in Action'', pages 51–71. Motorbooks International Publishers, 1995. The first water bucket was probably developed by Jim Grady of Okanagan Helicopters working with Henry Stevenson, who owned a machine shop in

Nelson, British Columbia Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings f ...

. Development began in the mid-1950s and the "Monsoon Bucket" was operational in 1962. The bucket was a converted 45- imperial-gallon (205 L) drum with a trap door in the bottom that was actuated by the pilot in flight. In the early 1960s the California Division of Forestry (now known as CALFIRE) began water bucketing trials. Testing was also done on a 105-U.S.-gallon (400 L) water tank mounted on a

. US federal agencies, such as the BLM and the

USFS The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

also began contracting commercial helicopter services to assist in fighting wildfires on lands they were responsible for in the early 1960s. The

California Department of Forestry The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsib ...

began experimenting with helitack as a doctrinal concept in 1960, when a crew of three firefighters was deployed on an Alouette III helicopter.

Crews

Crew sizes vary from base to base and agency to agency. Helitack crews are often considered to be elite members of the firefighting community, partly because of the experience levels required to qualify as a crew member. CDF Captain Jim Barthol, in an interview with the ''San Diego Union-Tribune'', used the analogy of runners in a race to compare helitack with other handcrews. He said that "ground-based hand crews are marathon runners, while helitack crews work more like sprinters. Other hand crews might spend three days or more fighting a fire, we might work three different incidents in one day. It doesn't necessarily make us better than those other guys. It just makes us different." Much of the helitack crews' training centers on helicopter safety, as the crews typically load and unload with the rotors turning, and sometimes in very rough terrain, where only the skid on one side can be touched down. The minimum recommended physical fitness standards for helitack-rappelers set by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group are: packout 85 pounds for 3 miles within 90 minutes, run 1-miles in 10:30 or less, 25 push-ups in 60 seconds, 45 sit-ups in 60 seconds, and 4 or more pull-ups.

Equipment

Helicopters used for helitack missions are usually utility helicopters, selected for both their lifting capability as well as their large cabin size to accommodate the helitack crew. Some of the most common helicopter types are variants of the venerable UH-1 Huey, known in the civilian world as the Bell 205, especially upgraded variants such as the 205A++ and the 210. The twin-engine

Bell 212 The Bell 212 (also known as the ''Twin Two-Twelve'') is a two-blade, medium helicopter that first flew in 1968. Originally manufactured by Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, production was moved to Mirabel, Quebec, Canada ...

is also popular. Other helicopters such as the

Sikorsky S-58 The Sikorsky H-34 "Choctaw" (company designation S-58) is an American piston-engined military helicopter originally designed by Sikorsky as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft for the United States Navy. It has seen extended use when ad ...

are also used, and the S-70 Firehawk, a civilian version of the military's UH-60 Blackhawk, is now being operated by two agencies in the U.S. Smaller helicopters, such as the Bell 206 JetRanger and AS350 Astar are sometimes used for precision water drops to protect specific structures, such as cabins or homes. Larger water dropping helicopters such as the S-64 Skycrane, which can hold as much as 3,000 gallons, rivaling fixed-wing airtankers, are increasingly being used. Only some of these larger rotorcraft have provisions for carrying ground crews, therefore may not always considered "helitack" aircraft in the true sense of the word. Some Type I rotorcraft, such as the Boeing 234, can carry up to 44 passengers in proper configuration. Water tanks are often permanently or semi-permanently mounted under the helicopter's belly, which can either be filled at a helispot via a hose from a fire engine, or with a "snorkel", a long hose with a water pump in its end that can suck water out of a lake or small tank set up by fire crews. The helitack crews use the same tools on the fire lines as other ground crews do, including chain saws, axes, shovels and a specialized, two-headed cutting tool known as a Pulaski.

US classification system

In the U.S., helitack helicopters are designated by "type", as defined by the ''Interagency Helicopter Operations Guide'', based on their capacities:''Interagency Helicopter Operations Guide'', March 2006, Chapter 6

Canadian classification system

Since

forest protection Forest protection is a branch of forestry which is concerned with the preservation or improvement of a forest and prevention and control of damage to forest by natural or man made causes like forest fires, plant pests, and adverse climatic cond ...

is a provincial responsibility in Canada each province has its own system for classifying helicopters for contract use, setting equipment standards and for employing them. A typical system is the one that was in use by

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

in 1996. The then-named ''Manitoba Department of Natural Resources'' established a stand-by system for all aircraft contracted for forest fire protection missions. This consisted of five levels of readiness, depending on the fire forecast and the time of day: * Red Alert: Crews are at the base with the aircraft serviced, fueled and ready for immediate dispatch. * Yellow Alert: Crews can be contacted and be at the base within fifteen minutes. The aircraft is fuelled. Minor aircraft servicing is permitted. The aircraft must be airborne within 30 minutes of receiving the dispatch call. * Blue 1: The crews can be contacted and the aircraft can be airborne within one hour of receiving a dispatch call. Routine servicing and maintenance of the aircraft are permitted. * Blue 2: The crews can be contacted and the aircraft airborne within two hours of receiving a dispatch call. Routine servicing and maintenance of the aircraft are permitted. * Green: Stand-down.Manitoba Department of Natural Resources, Operations Division, Fire Program: ''Pilot Briefing Handbook MG-2261 (rev 3.96)'', page 23. Government of Manitoba, 1996 At that time the Manitoba Department of Natural Resources classified contract helicopters in two classifications: * Medium Lift Helicopter * Light Lift Helicopter The province also sets equipment standards for these contract helicopters, which are similar to others used across Canada:

Medium-lift helicopter

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

-AM Radio Communication Transceiver (118–136 MHz). * VHF-FM "hi band" radio able to operate on the Department of Natural Resources' assigned frequencies (160–165 MHz) with dual tone multi-frequency encoding capability. * Crew intercom with four headsets and air to ground communications capability on VHF-AM and FM from at least both front seat locations. * Cargo hook * Two 12-foot × 12-foot nets * Two lanyards * One barrel net. * 320- imperial-gallon (1,450 L) capacity collapsible water bucket with foam injection capability. * Skid landing gear with bear paws. * Portable refuelling pump. *

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite ...

Manitoba Department of Natural Resources, Operations Division, Fire Program: ''Pilot Briefing Handbook MG-2261 (rev 3.96)'', page 33. Government of Manitoba, 1996

Light-lift helicopter

* VHF-AM Radio Communication Transceiver (118–136 MHz). * VHF-FM "hi band" radio able to operate on the Department of Natural Resources' assigned frequencies (160–165 MHz) with dual tone multi-frequency encoding capability. * Two head sets, intercom and air to ground communication. * Cargo hook * Two slings or cargo nets. * Water bucket with instant deployment system. * High skid gear with bear paws. * Electrical plug with related 50-

ampere The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp,SI supports only the use of symbols and deprecates the use of abbreviations for units. is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to elect ...

circuit breaker A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by an overcurrent or short circuit. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow to protect equipment and to prevent the ris ...

suitable for use with Heli-Torch. * Model MS-3102A-16 Cannon plug with related 10 ampere circuit breaker conveniently located for use with provincial Aga 750 infrared scanning equipment. *

Incidents

*July 6, 1994 - While fighting the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain, near

Glenwood Springs Glenwood Springs is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 9,963 at the 2020 United States Census. Glenwood Springs is located at the confluence of the Roaring Fork ...

, Colorado, two helitack firefighters and 12 other firefighters were killed as they tried to flee the fire after it "spotted" beyond the fireline and began to race up the steep, densely vegetated terrain towards them."Fire Behavior Associated with the 1994 South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain, Colorado", U.S. Department of Agriculture
/ref> *September 13, 2004 – While fighting a fire in the

Stanislaus National Forest Stanislaus National Forest is a U.S. National Forest which manages of land in four counties in the Sierra Nevada in Northern California. It was established on February 22, 1897, making it one of the oldest national forests. It was named after th ...

in northern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, seven members of a CDF helitack crew were engulfed in the flames when the wind shifted in their direction. The gust lasted for no more than 30 seconds, but one firefighter was killed and several of the survivors were critically burned.

Images

File:Day-fire-helitack-01.jpg, Santa Barbara County hand crew and a

on the Day Fire. USFS photo by Jim Akerman File:S-58TC-GLOG.JPG, S-58T, callsign ''Helitack 169'', ready to head to a project fire,

Dryden, Ontario Dryden, originally known as New Prospect, is the second-largest city in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located on Wabigoon Lake. It is the least populous community in Ontario incorporated as a city. The City of Dryden had ...

1995 File:Bell205A-1andFireFighters03.JPG, ''Helitack 140'', a Bell 205A-1 and

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources The Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario's provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands ...

firefighters working on Fire 141 in 1995 File:Bell204CandFireFighters04.JPG, A Bell 204B, callsign ''Helitack 114'' and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources firefighters working on Fire 141 in 1995 File:Bar complex helibase.jpg, Example of a helibase, this one at Weaverville, California, during the Bar Complex Fire. USFS Bell AH-1 Cobra nose is in the foreground File:Laco-s70-N160LA-040501-01.jpg, LA County Fire S-70A Firehawk File:Cdf-b205-N497DF-061027-02cr-16.jpg, CDF Bell 205 from the Bieber Helitack crew File:Kfd-205-N408KC-050428-26cr.jpg, Kern County Bell 205A++ Super Huey dropping water File:Helicoptere bombardier d eau Italie.jpg, A

Eurocopter Ecureuil Eurocopter Écureuil may refer to one of three related helicopter designs, each of which was originally manufactured by Aérospatiale (later part of Eurocopter Group, now Airbus Helicopters). * Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil helicopter * Eurocopter AS3 ...

dips its bucket into a swimming pool before returning to drop the water on a wildfire outside

Naples, Italy Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

File:Bell407C-GZRN02.jpg, Helitack 63: A typical light helicopter used in fire fighting, this Bell 407 served with the

during the 2007 fire season File:Bar-complex sphere-dispenser.jpeg, Plastic sphere dispenser on a Bell 206L LongRanger, on the Bar Complex Fire File:Example Helitack drop.webm, A video of a Bell 407 helicopter working with ground firefighters by dropping water from a bucket.

References

External links

Interagency Helicopter Operations Guide

Officer.com article on helicopter firefighting
{{Helicopters and rotorcraft Aerial firefighting

Firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typically ...

Incident management