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Text & Pictures: Serge van Oosterzee - ©SBAP 2011
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| Ejército del Aire 43 Grupo de Fuerzas Aéreas | Govern de les illes Balears |
During last summer holidays
I withnessed an impressive Canadair
water bomber action on a criminal fire happened on
August, 25 2011 in the area of Palma de Majorque.
During a visit to the Marineland attraction park we
saw the first smoke in the closed mountain.
A first helicopter, a PZL W-3AM (EC-HSQ)
from the Govern de les illes Balears arrived on site to probably drop
some fire brigade men and then to take a water baby bucket
to begin to fight against the fire.
Few minutes later two Martinez
Ridao Air Tractor AT-802 (EC-HMD and EC-GVN) also
owned by the local and independent governemant have drop some chemical
product to delay the fire expansion.
As it was not sufficient, the Spanish Air Force
Canadair CL-215T (43-26)
deployed in the Balears during the summer period has come to action,
taking the water just in front of the attraction park.
It is interesting to note that the Spanish Canadair fleet (14 CL-215T and 3
CL-415) are under control of the Ejército del Aire. Usualy the Canadair fleet is
based at Madrid-Torrejon under the 43 grupo, including the 431 squadron and the
432 squadron.
Five other airplane of this kind (former Spanish Air Force CL-215 upgraded in T
version) of this kind are handled by the
Ministry of Environment
(CEGISA).
The opportunity was great to
saw two water reload procedures and this was very
impressive as it just take 20 sec to reload the plane with
around 5400 liters of water.
Few moments later we passed with the bus near the fire very closed from the
motorway and we saw the damages caused by this criminal,
stupid and thoughtless act.
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| The road to the mountains area is closed for security reasons | The fire is quite near the homes |
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| PZL W-3AM Sokol from the Balears Governement | Bringing members of the firebragade |
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| Martinez Ridao Air Truck AT-802 also from Balears Governement... | ...came to spray fire delayer chemical products |
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| The PZL W-3AM equipped with a baby bucket | Many rotations needed... |
 Back to get more water...but clearly not sufficient |
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| Woody area really near the houses | |
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| Both EC-HMD and EC-GVN were used during this real intervention | Basic intervention was not sifficient. The Canadair (43-26) came in support |
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| The Spanish Canadair CL-215T & CL-415 fleet is controlled by the Ejército del Aire | The 43 Grupo is normaly based at Madrid-Torréjon... |
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| ...but during summer season some planes are deployed at different places in the country were the fires are frequent during the hot period | |
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| The Canadair fleet is wearing the Spanish national insigna | Heavy duty |
| 8 pictures...20 seconds...5400 liters of water ! | |
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| The firebrigade after the intervention... | ...and the result of this criminal fire ! |
