Helicopters at Santa Fe Airport Ready For Call to Fires

June 2, 2004
Helicopters from Oregon are on standby at the Santa Fe airport, ready to be called to help fight wildfires.
SANTA FE (AP) -- Helicopters from Oregon are on standby at the Santa Fe airport, ready to be called to help fight wildfires.

New Mexico's high risk for wildfires made it a good place for Columbia Helicopters of Aurora, Ore., to station an on-call helicopter, even if the company doesn't get paid unless it gets called, said John Harris, pilot of a Boeing 234 Chinook from Columbia sitting on the tarmac at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport.

The Chinook can carry up to 19 firefighters and can drop water on a blaze from a collapsible, 2,600-gallon bucket that can scoop water from a source as shallow as 18 inches, he said.

Another large helicopter from Erickson Air-Crane of Oregon also is stationed at the airport.

The U.S. Forest Service has contracted with both companies for help in fighting wildfires this summer.

``When air support is needed, it is usually in the initial attack,'' said Dan Ware, an information officer for state forestry. ``They buy time. They protect locations and structures until we can get ground crews up there.''

Over Memorial Day weekend, five helicopters and two single-engine air tankers dropped water and slurry as ground crews worked to build a line around a fire near Capitan in south-central New Mexico. The Peppin Fire, which broke out May 15 from lightning, has grown to 37,000 acres.

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