Helitorching, 'cause "I love the smell of napalm in the morning..."

July 15, 2008, about 1:30 pm...

You may have heard Buck Silva, Operations Chief for the Unified Command on the East Side o' the Basin Complex Fire, answer a question posed by a woman in attendance, who asked him about a backfire technique called Helitorching.

Buck elaborated a bit, but I found his answer "food for thought and grounds for further research," as radio host of "For the Record" and conspiracy theorist Dave Emory used to say.

Here's the scoop:

Helitorching involves the use of a drip torch attached to a reservoir or drum of gelled gasoline (napalm), mounted or slung under a helicopter. The helitorch emits a steady stream of burning gobs of fuel. The gel is held in a red 50-gallon container tethered to the bottom of a helicopter, then dropped as flaming gobs, or streams of jelly on the area to be backfired.

Firefighters say the "helitorch" is one of their most valuable firefighting weapons. Firefighters use the helitorch to set a backfire in front of a fast-moving fire, robbing it of fuel and making it easier to control. Helitorching has been used on numerous wildfires, including our very own Basin Complex.

According to the Ventura County Fire Department - Hey! We've seen their Type 1 and Type 3 crews in the neighborhood! Thanks, guys and gals! - had firefighters not used a helitorch in the Zaca fire, near Santa Barbara, the fire would likely have been a lot more unwieldy and taken much longer to contain. 

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Photos from Denise Kocek...

Denise wrote, saying:

"Hi Kelly, Here are some pics. Drove down to Big Sur today.....they surely were lucky as the fire, as you most likely know, came all the way down to Hwy 1 in some areas ! Take care....Denise"

Right you are Denise, You take care and thanks for the photos!

Here are some shots from Denise:

Here's a bucket-wielding Apache AH-64 Longbow, refreshing those below with a shower, on the way to a fire line.

Here's a video of CDF choppers in action loading a bucket in a stream...

MoCo General Plan be damned!!!

Carmel Valley Village enters a new 

growth phase!

Spike Camp at the airstrip in Carmel Valley Village