Aircrane Accident

[Fish]

I caught wind of an Aircrane accident sometime this morning while it was water bombing , thankfully both pilots walked away okay from what I heard :up: .

 

Any other info out there?

[Fenestron]

this one???

 

google is your friend.....

 

Giant California forest fire nearly contained as weather improves

 

The Associated Press

 

OJAI

 

Aided by the arrival of cool and damp weather, firefighters on Monday were close to fully containing a vast wildfire that has burned for nearly a month in a mountainous Southern California forest.

 

The Day Fire, which has burned 162,702 acres or about 254 square miles, was 95 percent contained, and firefighters were confident they would have the blaze completely surrounded by 6 p.m. Monday.

 

Large numbers of firefighters were being sent home from the blaze, which was ignited on Labor Day by someone burning debris.

 

Dry and sometimes windy conditions that helped spread the fire in recent weeks gave way Sunday to unexpectedly wet weather that brought scattered showers over the fire area in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles. Rainfall ranged from 0.02 inch to 0.12 inch, a fire information statement said.

 

Temperatures in parts of Los Padres National Forest were in the 40s early Monday, with humidity ranging from 70 percent to 80 percent, said fire spokesman Curtis Vincent.

 

"The weather has definitely been in our favor the last couple of days," Vincent said.

 

The fire has destroyed one rural home and damaged another. It also burned a handful of structures including barns, sheds, an unoccupied cabin and a camping trailer. At times it threatened the communities of Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore and homes in Lockwood Valley and neighboring areas.

 

The good news from the fire lines was marred Sunday by the crash of a firefighting helicopter at a base where it was taking on a load of fire retardant and water. Both pilots suffered only minor injuries but there was extensive damage to the Sikorsky-64E helitanker owned by Erickson Air-Crane of Central Point, Ore.Firefighting costs have been estimated at more than $70 million. At its peak, more than 4,000 firefighters fought the blaze. Just over 2,000 remained Monday.

 

___

 

On the Net:

 

http://www.inciweb.org

 

Published: Monday, October 2, 2006 11:07 PDT

[Some guy]

good to hear all pilots walked away!!!!

[Helilog56]

Yes, the accident occurred at a retardant tank while trying to reload during tank firefighting operations.........we are all extremely relieved that there were no flight crew(s) seriously hurt, as just as important, any ground personnel.

[412driver]

thanks for the update HL56. glad everyone is ok! :up: :up:

[Fenestron]

I found this pic of it while searching for other morbidly disturbing things....