Aircraft engineer says he can put end to forest fires
While he may not be the Don Quixote character fighting against windmills, Joe C. Coomer is pretty much alone when it comes to his idea for fighting — and eliminating — forest fires.
With the cost of fighting wildfires in California in the $3 billion range this year, there will be a definite emphasis on how to fight and prevent forest fires in the state in 2021. Coomer, who’s an 85-year-old retired aircraft weight engineer who retired from Boeing in 1995, says the solution is simple.
Coomer wants the firefighting effort against wildfires to be changed from essentially a ground fight that’s support to air to a fight that’s done all in the air. To do that, Coomer said, a change from smaller aircraft and helicopters needs to be made to using much larger aircraft. His idea is to use C5 air tankers to fight wildfires.
“I’ve still got all my marbles,” said Coomer, who has written two editorials on the subject of fighting wildfires that have appeared in The Recorder. “I’ve been studying this for three years. We’re changing dramatically the size of aircraft.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” added Coomer about completely changing
how to fight wildfires. “We can end major forest fires.”
His plan includes switching the oversight of aircraft to fight wildfires from such agencies as CALFIRE and the U.S. Forest Service to the U.S. Air Force.
One logical base for fighting wildfires and where the C5 tankers could be stored is Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. “You can put out two fires simultaneously,” said Coomer if Travis Air Force is used as a base.
He added by using C5 tankers, private contractors of aircraft would no longer be needed for the most part, thus reducing the overall cost.
Coomer said he would also like to see the elimination of helicopters being used to fight wildfires. “Helicopters should not be used.”
While the cost of larger aircraft is obviously much higher than smaller aircraft, Coomer said that’s more than made up for by the reduced cost per gallon of water used by larger aircraft as opposed to smaller aircraft. “The cost per gallon is horrible,” said Coomer about smaller aircraft.
While aircraft currently used to fight wildfires can carry up to 19,000 gallons of water, the C5 can carry twice as much at up to 40,000 gallons, Coomer said.
Coomer said he has done the math and it costs as much as $16,667 a gallon to fight wildfires using smaller aircraft while the cost would be just $125 a gallon using the C5.
He said the goal by switching to an all air fight using the C5 is to extinguish the fire in its infancy, thus preventing major forest fires. The goal is to “get to the fire ASAP with as much water as you can get there,” Coomer said.
“To transport the maximum amount of water will require securing the largest aircraft possible,” Coomer said. “If they have enough large birds they should be able to do much more than just fight the fire, they should be able to actually extinguish it all from the air and in a single pass.”
There are C5s available from an Arizona boneyard that can be acquired by agencies to fight wildfires, Coomer said. The only cost would be to convert the C5s to be used for firefighting, which Coomer estimates to be $5 million each. That’s in comparison to other aircraft that cost $10 to $20 million, he said.
Coomer said his idea has basically fallen on deaf ears when he presents it to firefighting officials. Coomer sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue about his idea. The Department of Agriculture governs the U.S. Forest Service.
Perdue did ask the Forest Service to respond and Forest Service Director of Fire and Aviation Shawna Legarza, who retired from the position earlier this year, did respond.
“The variety and size of the current aircraft fleet at our disposal provides flexibility to employ aircraft that are appropriate for the geography, fire behavior, topography and length of season,” Legarza wrote. “Moving responsibility of firefighting to the military and using a single aircraft for this mission eliminates the ability to assign an appropriate mix of aviation assets to ensure that ever wildland fire receives a risk informed and effective response.”
Legarza also noted the C5 is currently not an operational air tanker. “The Forest Service is unable to evaluate it for airworthiness requirements, structural integrity, maintenance needs, safety elements or to know if it would be support by the manufacturer in the airtanker role.”
But Coomer said the C5 can be made operational to fight wildfires.
Another idea Coomer has is to install sprinkler systems for trees in the forest near residential areas to protect those areas. While it would take a major water source, Coomer said sprinkler systems should be considered to create a firebreak.