SILVERTIP'S FIRST SEASON
Our first fire of the season, last year, was the Ridge Fire in Covelo, on June 24th. This fire had special significance to me for a couple of reasons. Not only was it our first for Silvertip but my wife and I "busted our butts" getting to it. On June 23rd, we had just arrived, with our trailer, at my cousin's house in Long Beach, after having driven most of the night to get there. We were there about 8 hours when we got paged to return to Mendocino County, an hour north of where we had just come from. We drove 13 hours, all night, to get back to the Ridge Fire.
On the Ridge Fire, we worked with two agency ships…our own local CDF copter 101 and the USFS, Boise National Forest copter 214. San Joaquin Helicopters had two ships (copters 212 and 928) as well as two from Columbia Helicopters (copters 190 and 191). This was the first of several fires that we would work with Bruce Harrison of Redding Air Service in copter 801HM. Pad protection was provided by All Terrain Water Corporation of Hopland and the Covelo Fire Department.
Our second deployment was to the Powerhouse Fire, 7/30, and the helibase was set up at the Fall River Mills airport. Columbia Helicopters was there again with three type I's (copters 184, 185, and 187). They gave us quite an impressive fly-by when they departed on the last day. CDF copter 101 was on scene again along with USFS copter 502 from the Klamath National Forest. Helimax Aviation had copter 82NW, a Bell 214 B-1, out of Sutter Creek. The Redding Fire Department provided our pad protection on the fire.
The Ponderosa Fire, which began on 8/18, was our third fire. The base was established at an old mill site in Forest Hill. This proved to be our most challenging helibase, due the many obstacles (old buidings, wires, and poles), the dust and the inability to completely close the base from outside traffic. Security worked overtime at this location. Our friend Bruce Harrison was there again from Redding Air Service (copter 801HM). Two CDF ships were present; copter 404R from Columbia and copter 205 out of Vina. At one point, Carson Helicopters had three ships at the base, copters 664, 11M, and 116AZ. Carson's helicopter manager was a very interesting and friendly gentleman from Knoxville , Tenn. by the name of Jerry Buck. Jerry was from the Daniel Boone National Forest and we thoroughly enjoyed working with him. Dust control, which was a full time job, was handled by watertenders from Seels and Brown, Northtree, and Mortz Bros.. Crash/Rescue was provided by the Forest Hill Fire Dept.. It was pretty quiet for them throughout the deployment until one afternoon when a CNG chinook declared an emergency and made a fast landing on a very dusty pad to the west of the base. The Guard ships also made a name for themselves when it was discovered that they had been dipping out of a tertiary sewer treatment pond, later named Lake Stelle, after the Air Operations Officer. All worked out well in the end and Ed Stelle took it in good humor.
Weaverville Airport was the site of our next deployment on 8/28 and it appeared from the start that this fire had the potential for being very devastating. It actually burned into the town of Weaverville and only some very heroic firefighting saved the town. Engine 246 from the Anderson Fire Department provided our pad protection. The watertenders were provided by Eddie Parkorney and Allied Water Services. We first met Jason Thrasher of Trinity Helicopters on this fire. He was very busy in copter 212 and was an immediate hit with the ladies in the trailer. Westwind Helicopters was there with copter 123WF, a type III. Heavylift Helicopters, as their name implies, had two type I's, copters 794 and 790, out of Apple Valley. Era Helicopters had copter 510 at the base. Copter 548CH was provided by Columbia Helicopters. Three CDF ships were on this fire including copter 205 (Vina), 202 (Bieber), and 404 (Columbia). This fire was unique also because the Governor was scheduled to visit. His advance security team arrived first and made a few landings in a CHP copter. Later, two CNG Blackhawks landed at the base for refueling, after having dropped Governor Davis off at the incident base. While we didn't get to meet the Governor, the Blackhawks generated a lot of visitors and pictures. Again, a "well done" to all the firefighters, both on the ground and in the air, for stopping this one where they did.
Our final fire of the year was the Poe Fire (9/7) and the helibase was established at Oroville Airport. Era Helicopters had copter 510 there with a USFS crew on board from Chester. This crew provided us with quite a show when they had to renew their proficiency skills by rappelling out of the copter at about 200 feet. Jason Thrasher was there with copter 212 representing Trinity Helicopters. Our resident "character" at this base turned out to be pilot Ben Seel from Sunshine, LA., who promptly declared himself "the best damn pilot on the base". Ben's company, Southern Helicopters, had two ships at the base, copters 205CP and 204GP. CDF copter 205 was there. Siller Bros. had two type I's, copters 456 and 68L. An intersting thing about Evergreen's type I, copter 79R, was that it's co-pilot, a retired Marine Colonel, had been President Reagan's pilot on Marine 1 for 4 years. Steve Carvacho was in Oroville, all the way from Big Lake, Alaska, representing Northern Pioneer Helicopters. P.J. Helicopters had copter 204PJ there as well as copter 801HM from Redding Air Service, with our old friend Bruce Harrison. Crash/Rescue was handled by the Oroville Fire Department. Watertenders came from Floodgate H2O, First Responder, and Johnson Equipment. Obviously, the one thing we will all remember from this fire is that this is where we were on September 11, 2001. I'm not even going to try to describe the feelings of everyone on the base when this tragedy occurred. Helibase Manager Ken Schlientz has written an article on his feelings on this day elsewhere on this website. Please never forget the victims of this attack.
Thank you to everyone we have worked with this last fire season and we look forward to doing it again this year. Be safe this season.
Fred Imhoff, Deck Coordinator
Silvertip Helibase Management Service