Marsianerna på väg mot Kalifornien
Jag höll på att skriva "Mars' attacks", men ändå kanske det ligger något lite passande i uttrycket. Nu har en av dessa urtidsdjur till flygbåtar nämligen påbörjat resan ner från British Columbia till Kalifornien för att användas i bekämpningen av de svåra bränderna.
Urtidsdjur, dinosaurer...kalla dem vad ni vill: Det är frågan om en av de sista Martin Mars - världens största flygbåt som nådde serieproduktion. Spännvidden är till exempel 60 meter.
Så värst många kom inte att tillverkas, bara sex stycken. Två av dessa finns kvar och opereras numera av Coulson Group. En Martin Mars kan skopa över 27 kubikmeter vatten (eller så kallat fire retardant) i ett "drop"....
VICTORIA - A Martin Mars water bomber was expected to leave B.C. at
dawn Wednesday for San Diego, where weary U.S. crews are battling
wildfires that so far have burned more than 750 homes and forced the
evacuation of more than half a million residents.
The water bomber's owner, Wayne Coulson, flew with 10 employees to
San Diego on Tuesday and will meet up with the aircraft as it arrives.
"We're really grateful to have it here," said Maurice Luque,
spokesman of the San Diego fire department.
The fires, fuelled by drought and fanned by the dry Santa Ana winds,
are not contained but the winds lessened somewhat on Tuesday.
"It would have been so wonderful to have had the Mars here a day or
so ago when the fire first broke out," said Luque, adding that
resources, personnel and equipment have been sent from Northern
California to help out.
The fires could be larger than the ones that devastated the San Diego
region in 2003, said Luque: "We thought we saw the last of fires of
that magnitude but we definitely have that here."
Coulson Group had been anticipating a call for the water bomber and
plans were in place to send it south.
"I've been down with San Diego fire department four times in the last
five weeks working ... on placing the Mars down there for the Santa
Anas," said Coulson on Tuesday. "We're ahead of the game, we've flown
into a bunch of the water reservoirs down there so we have a sense of
where we're going to go."
A tractor-trailer used for specialized maintenance and a fuel truck
left for San Diego Monday.
This isn't the first time a Coulson-owned aircraft has fought
wildfires in Southern California. A firefighting helicopter worked in
the Los Angeles basin for five years.
"It's a natural fit for us," said Coulson. "We know everybody, we
know what we're going into and everyone knows us. We're pretty
pleased."
The water bomber will likely be put to work covering homes and
structures with a protective covering called Thermo-Gel, which
consists of 98 per cent water and a super-absorbent polymer. Fighting
the fires right now is just too difficult, said Coulson.
"There's not a hell of a lot you can do with a 60-mph wind and fire
coming at you other than just gelling homes to protect as many as you
can," he said.
Ett annat "åbäke" som antagligen också brukas för fullt i brandbekämpningen är "Tanker 910", en konverterad DC-10.
Den kan dumpa 45 kubik. Men när man tänker på det: Om det nu ska vara vatten man ska fälla - hur många slängar/drop har en Martin Mars hunnit göra medans DC-10:an har landat, taxat in, lastat, startat upp, taxat ut, lyft och kommit tillbaka in i bekämpningsområdet?
