Tasmania Fire Service aerial operations on show ahead of bushfire season

Twelve new aircraft have landed in Tasmania as the state’s fire service ramps up its capabilities ahead of the bushfire season. SEE THE AIRCRAFT >>

THE Tasmania Fire Service has shown off the capabilities of its flashy fleet of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters in a training exercise at Colebrook on Thursday.

The specialised aircraft are being leased for up to 11 weeks to assist crews battling bushfires this summer.

GALLERY: Fireys show off new fire fighting aircraft

TFS chief officer Dermot Barry said it was part of the organisation’s firefighting strategy moving into the bushfire season.

“We use what they call a rapid weight of attack where we use extended ground forces but support them with the aerial operations,” Mr Barry said.

“The idea being we’re hitting fires early and hitting them hard.”

An Air Tractor Fire Boss showing its abilities at the aviation firefighting fleet demonstration at Colebrook. Picture: Chris Kidd

The fixed wing aircraft can hold three tonnes of water while the helicopters can hold two and a half tonnes.

The fleet was sent into action to test the aircraft as part of a training simulation.

“The simulation was an isolated farmhouse, and then behind that we were worried about critical infrastructure being power supply,” Mr Barry said.

“They’d detected the fire early, so we brought in the aircrews, they started water bombing to control or contain the fire and by now we would have had ground crews on hand as well who would have started to mop up and tidy up.”

TFS chief officer Dermot Barry. Picture: Chris Kidd

There are eight helicopters and four are fixed-wing planes, with each aircraft falling into one of three categories: firebombing, intelligence gathering and air supervision.

“We have a special intelligence gathering helicopter which can actually stream live information not only to our ground crews but to our crews involved in the incident management side of it as well,” Mr Barry said.

“We also have support aircraft, we have essentially air traffic controllers in one of those helicopters and their role is to co-ordinate the attack to make sure it’s safe, not only for the people on the ground but our pilots and crews as well.”

Andrew Kennedy, pilot at Kennedy Air, which is leasing the four planes, said the planes were efficient in Tasmania’s geography.

“They’re very good when used in conjunction with a helicopter at knocking out fires in remote areas,” Mr Kennedy said.

Pilot Andrew Kennedy with an Air Tractor Fire Boss. Picture: Chris Kidd

The aircraft are also often used interstate.

“Typically, we’ll work from August through to April in most years,” Mr Kennedy said.

“They’re available on call when needed so we’ll work them in Tasmania outside of that 11-week period and we also operate in Queensland and New South Wales.”

The leasing arrangement is jointly funded by the state and federal governments.

“In addition to the 20 other aircraft in the state, it gives us 32 aircraft that are now strategically placed right around Tasmania for the upcoming season,” Fire and Emergency Minister Jacquie Petrusma said.

The fleet includes:

2 “Air Tractor” AT-802F

2 “Fireboss” is the AT-802F, equipped with amphibious floats

4 “Bell” 214B helicopters

2 “Twin Squirrel” AS355-F1 helicopters

1 FB 700 Special Intelligence Gathering helicopter

1 “HeliTreck” BK117

Originally published as Tasmania Fire Service aerial operations on show ahead of bushfire season