C-130 aircraft and the CO wildfires

[Democrats_win]

It's the law that military C-130 aircraft cannot be used to fight fires unless all available commercial aircraft are being used or are not readily available. These planes, when fitted with the proper equipment have excellent capabilities in fire fighting.

This law is a little mind blowing because these aircraft belong to the people of the U.S. and should be used to fight fires when they are needed. This is about the serious issue of fighting fires, not some trivial thing like a city building a miniature golf course that competes against a private facility. While the GOP complains about regulations supposedly hampering economic growth, here we have regulations hampering fire fighting efforts. This is truly a shame and quite clearly a sham of right wing putting the interests of private business ahead of the people. After all, the rich capitalists MUSt get their 30 pieces of silver!

I saw the TV pics of the flames in CO Springs last night and I am truly upset and saddened by what I saw. I'm sure that everyone at DU has the citizens of CO Springs in their thoughts today.

BTW, there are just 8 C-130s that can be fitted for fire fighting in the entire U.S. with one additional held in reserve. The governors of Wyoming, NC, and CA can freely request these planes because they are stationed in their states. The governor of CO must request them which he did Sunday. The planes needed to be retrofitted and flew their first flight Monday afternoon. This link provides more info about the C-130s use in CO wild fires fighting.
http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_20937378

[Indydem]

1. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

The governor requested the planes on Sunday, and got them on Monday.

No big brew ha ha about how a crop duster in Denver wasn't in on the fight, just approval and deployment.

What exactly are you getting at? Are you indicating that the governor wanted them earlier but someone said no?

[Democrats_win]

2. These planes should have been fighting fires in CO all along.

I can understand your why you might question my complaint.

Not using the best we have--the C-130 planes--is just so wrong. The RW ideology is what kept them out of the fight until this formal request was made. This is not what America does. We tackle a problem with all we've got. I guess that we Americans are so used to this kind of "help private business" first mindset that we miss what's important--getting the job done. In this case, it means having the government do it. The RW refuses to acknowledge that the government--OUR government--can do the job better. Government isn't the problem, the failed idealogy of the RW is.

[Woody Woodpecker]

3. Local rag says all 8 C-130's are has been ordered activated and help with the firefighting

per Peterson AFB.

[pasto76]

4. late to the game but I was an Incident Commander for my county SO

for search and rescue. This law applies as well for requesting military helicopters to support a mission. Excepting active duty personnel, they can get it right away. It's not a bad idea per se. Kind of a check to ensure that government assets arent being used frivolously. However, military assets are usually cheaper than the contractors, they tend to inflate their charges because it is "big government".

I went last spring, with the COARNG to search a landfill for a baby that had been murdered. They had an excavator(track hoe) there to dig up the landfill so we could search. They were charging the PD $1000 a day to be there. It ran for maybe 2 hours tops a day. They could have had an identical excavator and operator there from the Engineer company for a fraction of the cost.

The 8 MAFFS (modular airborne FF system) support the entire country. And yes they were all tasked this summer, but not all to the waldo canyon fire. They are the best. Even though they are not truly a Type I apparatus, they are classified as Type I because they are so effective.

Think of all the other aspects that these laws, typical around the country, affect. Like a hurricane. Its mind boggling.