P3 Orion tankers working in Texas

Canso42 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:19 pm

I live about an hour wnw of Houston and we have a large serious wildfire going in the next county (Grimes) and KBTX tv's live blog had reports of two P3 Orions working the 'Grimes county fire'. I may get more info later after talking to a coworker who's a firefighter on the scene but does anyone know whose P3's these are? They are staging out of Easterwood Airport- CLL, College Station, Tx.
Please pray for rain for us. Texas is in a very serious drought/fire danger condition. KBTX reported earlier this pm. that there were 20 different fires working in Texas.

Ztex · **Posted:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:04 pm

The air tankers may be coming from Abilene. Helicopters may be working from LLC.

They show heavy tankers only at west Texas airports as of this morning....but things change quickly.
http://tfsfrp.tamu.edu/wildfires/resources.png

http://ticc.tamu.edu/Documents/Home/tx_sitrep.pdf

http://ticc.tamu.edu/

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:29 pm

Yes - pray for rain! I spend a good part of yesterday afternoon seeing if there was any way to help some good friends who's home was threatened by a fire yesterday. It was spared, but others were not. I think I got as close as 50 yds from the fire and was very impressed with how fast a fire can move after watching some of the action across the highway. The fire shut down IH-10 - a major artery - for several hours.

And to keep it a little aviation related - one of the fire suppression aircraft.

And a helicopter "bombing" the fire with water.

I took most of those photos from halfway up the hill in this photo

The fire was also relatively close (less than a mile) from WIXer Ober's home.

Ryan

JohnB · **Posted:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:46 pm

Aero Union flies a P-3B (ex-USN and Spain) that used to be at Abilene as a instruction airframe for the community college A&P school.
They flew it out circa 2003. It was in great shape but was something to see in Spanish Navy markings...in the middle of the west Texas desert.

airnutz · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:36 am

There was some footage on the local Houston news tonight of a Skycrane with a bucket attending the Grimes fire, but the film could have of been "stock footage" they used for their story.

One of the fire outbreaks has been tagged as the "Bearing Fire", because it was purportedly started by a trailer with a fried wheel bearing setting the ultra dry grass afire when it pulled off on the road shoulder. :shock:

A little maintenance goes a long way...

Some rain is forecast to begin tomorrow, with the heaviest chance for Wednesday afternoon..Tho bad juju may happen if the hurricane building on the west coast of Mexico sucks away all our moisture feeding in to a big low cell up in the Midwest, fingers crossed...we are SOOOOO dry since October.

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:06 am

I've been wondering where that helicopter and airplane came from that were fighting the fire in Nelson City came from. It is not the copter based in Frederickburg as it is away fighting fires in West Texas since the Formation School a couple of weeks ago. They were somewhat bored as they hadn't turned a rotor in over two weeks when we got there.........probably not bored anymore.

Ztex · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:09 pm

Received this message today...

As of 09:30 PDT. The following Tankers are operating out of Abilene,Tx:
P-3#00(N900AU),P2V#06(N9855F),P2V#12(N96264),P3#21(N921AU),P2V
#45(445NA)

That would make the P-3's Aero Union machines.

mustanglover · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:13 pm

Obergrafeter wrote:

I've been wondering where that helicopter and airplane came from that were fighting the fire in Nelson City came from. It is not the copter based in Frederickburg as it is away fighting fires in West Texas since the Formation School a couple of weeks ago. They were somewhat bored as they hadn't turned a rotor in over two weeks when we got there.........probably not bored anymore.

We've got two SEAT aircraft here in Uvalde. Not sure if they have gone anywhere in the last few days.

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:24 pm

We had one MBB Helicopter, and one Air Tractor (?) of some sort, and couldn't tell if the other helicopters were press or forest service.

GARY HILTON · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:41 pm

It dosen't take much to start a grass fire when it's hot and dry in Tejas....I started a grass fire north of Houston on a two lane when a tire blew on the U-Haul trailer, as I went to pull off the pavement....the steel belts in the tire sparked off the fire....Luckily with the help of other motorists, we were able to stomp it out before it got real serious!

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:03 pm

Obergrafeter wrote:

I've been wondering where that helicopter and airplane came from that were fighting the fire in Nelson City came from. It is not the copter based in Frederickburg as it is away fighting fires in West Texas since the Formation School a couple of weeks ago. They were somewhat bored as they hadn't turned a rotor in over two weeks when we got there.........probably not bored anymore.

Its a little early for your annual Christmas fire ain't it? Is that just past the Comfort exit??

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:19 pm

Nope right here in River City at the 533 exit. They call it Welfare but we know it's really Nelson City.

Canso42 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:59 pm

This thing in Grimes county is ugly. As of five pm. it was still an active, dangerous and unpredictable fire. Several co workers who are fire fighters are involved and all say that none of them have ever seen anything like this. And by today the utter weariness of the fire crews is quite sobering.
I'm pretty sure one good friend has lost his home going by where they lived and where the fire first blew up. This one was started by some individual of questionable judgement who left his grill and went inside for abit. Boom!
I hope you guys in the Hill Country are still safe.

Thanks for the id on the Orions, gang. I was excited to hear that there are warbird tankers in the fight. We need the Mars boats down here! Last night one of my firefighter friends texted me a photo of a Blackhawk filling up at a farm pond. (we call it a 'tank' here but not all of you may be country boys).
We need a tropical storm here, now.
blue skies...

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:20 pm

Canso42 wrote:

This thing in Grimes county is ugly. As of five pm. it was still an active, dangerous and unpredictable fire. Several co workers who are fire fighters are involved and all say that none of them have ever seen anything like this. And by today the utter weariness of the fire crews is quite sobering.
I'm pretty sure one good friend has lost his home going by where they lived and where the fire first blew up. This one was started by some individual of questionable judgement who left his grill and went inside for abit. Boom!
I hope you guys in the Hill Country are still safe.

Thanks for the id on the Orions, gang. I was excited to hear that there are warbird tankers in the fight. We need the Mars boats down here! Last night one of my firefighter friends texted me a photo of a Blackhawk filling up at a farm pond. (we call it a 'tank' here but not all of you may be country boys).
We need a tropical storm here, now.
blue skies...

None of those storms headed your way tonight?

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:38 pm

Obergrafeter wrote:

Nope right here in River City at the 533 exit. They call it Welfare but we know it's really Nelson City.

Wayne - I posted more photos on Fb under an album called "Natural Disasters." Also posted some at the following link: https://picasaweb.google.com/doolittleraiders/NelsonCityWaringExitOffOfIH10FireAftermathPhotos?feat=directlink I took those today.

Here are some samples...

Ryan

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P3 Orion tankers working in Texas

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