#tw wildfire

geriatric stray cat is NOT happy with being trapped (had to catch her in case we need to evacuate her from a wildfire)

But today I want to talk about drone activities in wildfire stricken areas.

I've seen aerial photos depicting the aftermath of the LA wildfires going around online aviation communities. I browsed through the instagram account of the original poster, they are a professional photographer documenting the ongoing disaster to garner attention for the victims and the first responders working 24/7 on the ground. Their drone photos seem to be a misguided attempt at citizen journalism.

But before I could fully react to this piece of information, news came out that a drone collided with a firefighting aircraft.

The aircraft involved is C-GQBE, a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper sent in by the government of Québec to provide aerial firefighting aid. It collided with a civilian drone while on an air attack mission in the afternoon of Jan 9, resulting in a small punctured hole on the leading edge of one of its wings. Luckily, the drone didn't hit any major component crucial to flight safety, it merely damaged the skin, and no life was lost in this incident.

It may seem like easily fixable, but aerial firefighting aircrafts go through unusual stress due to rapid and frequent fluctuation of altitude and weight, any damage to their skin has to be repaired and thoroughly examined before they're allowed to be airborne if you don't want them to fall apart mid-air. That's why C-GQBE has been grounded since the incident on Thursday.

One of the major factors hampering fire containment effort is the strong gust preventing firefighting aircrafts from doing their job safely when the fires first started. Firefighting pilots are now working tirelessly to delay the spread of fire as much as they can before the winds pick back up in a few days. Please do not fly unnecessary aircrafts into the air and make their work more difficult. They're racing against the clock here.

Even if, for some reason, you must deploy drones near the wildfires, please check the FAA Temporary Flight Restriction map beforehand and make sure you never fly into those areas. Otherwise, it would be a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison and up to $20,000 penalty in civil court.

Firefighting pilots are risking their lives, flying as low as 100 feet above ground to make an effective air drop in hopes of containing the fire. It's not ordinary circumstance.

Yesterday in the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece. Photo by Kosmas Koumianos.

tw distressing footage, wildfires

As a result of the forest fires that broke out and continued in different parts of the country, as of August 3rd 2021 8pm (GMT+3), an estimated total of 157,860 hectares of land, 2397 buildings, 1082 households, and 5922 people were affected.

credit: radicalized_faghag on instagram

(look at the first reblog for links)

captions under the cut

There’s literally no roads open and smoke billowing behind it. I was supposed to go in for my stats exam today, but now I don’t think I’m gonna drive myself up with a blazing 0% contained fire🤡