'I love the rush': A water bomber pilot stays cool fighting fires
With 11 years experience, Jeff Dawe knows what it takes to handle the challenges
It was a hectic day for provincial water bomber pilot Jeff Dawe on Monday.
High temperatures, and even higher wind speeds, added to the havoc that was the Kenmount Terrace fire that spread throughout the St. John's neighbourhood Monday afternoon, displacing residents and damaging 11 homes.
But for Dawe, a veteran pilot, there's nothing he would rather be doing.
"I love the rush, I love the feeling," Dawe said.
"You're yanking, you're banking and you get to help people. That's always a nice feeling. I really enjoy it. There's nowhere else I'd rather be. I could've went to the airlines years ago, I chose to be here and we all love our job."
Not an easy fight
The St. John's fire, in a densely populated urban neighbourhood, did pose its challenges.
"There was quite a bit of smoke first when we arrived," Dawe told CBC Radio's On The Go.
"It was in very close proximity to the houses, so it was really important that we got a lot of water on it right away to cool it down. Time was of the essence and luckily we had a water source close by, so everything kind of worked out for us."
Dawe's tanker dropped water on the blaze nine times, while a second tanker hit the fire at least 20 times.
Cell phone and radio towers made it difficult to manoeuvre his plane in and around the city to attack the fire.
"There's quite a few of them between Paddy's Pond and Kenmount Terrace, so you just have to be aware of those," Dawe said.
And then there was the wind.
"When you're low to the ground you have an aviation phenomenon called mechanical turbulence. That's high wind blowing over hills that creates a lot of turbulence downstream of the terrain," he said.
"So, it was quite bumpy there [Monday]. We had our five point harness seat belt, we had ourselves strapped in pretty good."
Paddy's Pond a helpful resource
Paddy's Pond off of the Trans Canada Highway has seen its share of water bombers over the years. Monday was no different as flight crews used it as their go to source for water to help ground firefighters battle the blaze.
"Paddy's Pond is kind of down in a valley behind a hill. So it's kind of in what we call a wind shadow, so it wasn't actually too bad," Dawe said.
Each load of water is roughly 6,100 litres and weighs 13,500 lbs. Dawe said the pick up of each load is more difficult than dropping it on the target.
"Conditions can be quite rough with high winds, sometimes we have four and five foot waves. It looks pretty intimidating from the cockpit," he said.
"But it takes time, and experience and practice. Eventually it all comes together pretty good."
Many moving parts help pilots stay on target
Dawe has 11 years experience under his belt.
But like other pilots, he also has resources to help find and hit the target.
"We use fire suppression foam that we inject into the tanks," Dawe said.
"So when you drop it it comes out like soap, or like snow, so we can see where we dropped. And usually there's a forestry personnel person on the ground, or close by, or in a helicopter and they'll let us know if our drop was on target."
Dawe says it's the people on the ground who completely put out flames.
"Our initial job is to cool things, to knock out the flames, get the fire in a controllable status, and ultimately it's boots on the ground that put out the fire," he said.
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