C-130 aircraft and the CO wildfires [View all]
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
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