The Sedona Airport is a staging point for a team of aerial firefighters with Columbia Helicopters battling wildfires in Northern Arizona.
The crew flies a heavy-lifting helicopter that can fight fire with efficiency: A dual-engine Columbia CH-47D Chinook that measures 100 feet in length with two propellers.
The aircraft boasts a 2,800-gallon internal water tank that can drop the water on a blaze in less than four seconds and can be refilled in less than 60. In addition to the internal water tank, the chopper is equipped to use buckets. It can lift, carry and deploy up to 2,650 gallons of water, chemical retardants or a mixture of the two on a wildfire. The buckets carry high-speed water pumps that can quickly fill the bucket from water sources as shallow as 18 inches.
The team located in Sedona consists of veteran firefighters as well as U.S. Army veterans. They stand at the ready to take to the sky and fight fire from above. They are is part of a larger corporation that serves customers and communities worldwide including Alaska, British Columbia, New Guinea, and Afghanistan.
The crew arrived several days ago from a month long deployment in Douglas, where they worked on the Woodbury and Mountain Fires in southern Arizona.
When asked what the hardest part of the job is, Command Pilot Jeff Freimund said, “Waiting around for the next fire is by far the hardest thing we have to do. Our guys are eager to get out there.”
The job is demanding as some fires take longer than others.
“This has been a very slow season, but sometimes we will get on a fire for a month at a time. On average we are on 10 to 15 fires per year.” Freimund said.
Freimund has been flying Chinooks since 1985 when he began serving as a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army, but has been fighting fires with Columbia for the past 26 years.
“It’s a total team effort but we always get where we need to go to do whatever we can to help.” Freimund said when it comes to fighting fires.
The team is currently staged in Sedona due to the surrounding area’s lack of precipitation and extreme heat. The company’s dispatchers placed Northern Arizona in a high risk category for forest fires.
With upcoming forecasts calling for wind and daily highs nearing triple digits, it is now a priority for firefighters and residents as well, to do their part to prevent forest fires.
Information on fire safety can be found on the U.S. Forest Service website: www.fs.fed.us.
Tristan Decker can be reached at 282-7795 or by email to editor@larsonnewspapers.com
