Air Tankers Grounded In Calif. Fire
Air tanker planes similar to one that lost its wings and crashed while battling a wildfire in Northern California were grounded by the federal government Tuesday pending an investigation.
All three people aboard were killed Monday near Walker, Calif., in the crash of a C-130A under contract from a civilian company.
On Tuesday, all five remaining C-130A aircraft under contract to the National Interagency Fire Center were grounded, said Nancy Lull, spokeswoman for the federal agency.
Unlike other C-130s, they are modified with internal tanks and systems to spray flame retardant on wildfires.
C-130s, made in the 1950s and '60s, are among the workhorses of the world's air fleet and were the primary transport used in Vietnam. They are among the most important weapons in the government's aerial firefighting arsenal because they can carry heavy loads of retardant.
Air tankers continued dropping slurry along the southern edge of the Hayman fire in Colorado Tuesday to help keep it from spreading.
The fire has grown by more than 10,000 acres since Monday as hot, dry, windy weather pushed it across trenches firefighters hoped would keep it from spreading. It has scorched about 113,000 acres and has destroyed at least 25 homes.
One fire official says the fire burned a half-mile of forest in about four minutes Monday.
At least 5500 people remain evacuated.
The C-130 crash was one of two serious firefighting accidents Monday.
Three firefighters were burned when their engine was overrun by a fire raging in Southern California's windy Cajon Pass through the San Bernardino Mountains 50 miles east of Los Angeles. The wildfire also shut down vital Interstate 15.
"These things happening in the middle of June do not bode well for the remainder of the year," said Bill Peters, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry's San Bernardino unit.
Meanwhile, Fremont County officials in Colorado say structure damage from the blaze dubbed the Iron Mountain Fire will total more than $4 million.
The fire started June 2 and burned nearly 100 homes in the Copper Gulch area south of Canon City. Firefighters contained it about a week later.
The damage figure doesn't include personal property such as campers or furniture. The Bureau of Land Management estimates it cost $1.7 million to fight the fire.
The Northern California fire, in the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite National Park, destroyed at least one house and forced 400 people to evacuate as it charred some 10,000 acres of brush and forest.
The crash came on the same day that a U.S. Forest Service worker in Colorado appeared in court on charges she started that state's biggest fire. Terry Barton told investigators she was burning a letter from her estranged husband. If convicted, she get up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.