Area firefighting agencies received some help this week with the arrival of a new water-scooping air tanker at Deer Park Airport.

The plane, a Canadair CL-215, was contracted by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs to replace the PBY, which did not have its contract renewed.

The new plane, owned by Aero-Flite, Inc. of Kingman, Ariz., will station at the Deer Park Airport for at least the next month.

Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland said the fire bomber holds 1,440 gallons of water and flies a little faster than the PBY.

Owner-pilot Matt Ziomek said the plane can be in the air in about 15 minutes after receiving a call and can fly about 225 mph. It only takes about 10 seconds to fill its tanks.

The twin-engine airplane can attack fires as far away as Western Montana and Northern Oregon.
Aero-Flite operates four other firefighting airplanes, which are currently deployed in Minnesota and Alaska.

Sutherland does not rule out the possibility of the PBY, which is still stationed at the Deer Park Airport, of being pressed into service this summer if DNR firefighting services are stretched thin in Eastern Washington.

The contract for the vintage World War II aircraft was not renewed after federal agencies refused to let the airplane fight fires on federal land.

Sutherland did not rule out the chance of firefighting helicopters being stationed in Colville or Omak this summer if the fire season gets quite large.

The DNR can mobilize up to about 1,000 firefighters throughout the state this summer.

Sutherland said forecasters have predicted a below-normal fire season, but that has not given the DNR personnel any reason to rest.

“Things change in a hurry,” he said, “that’s why you have to be prepared.”

Part of that preparation was the opening of the Northeast Washington Interagency Communications Center in Colville this week. The facility will serve as a joint dispatch and communications center for DNR, BLM and the U.S. Forest Service.

“It gives us face-to-face capabilities so everybody knows what we’re doing,” said Sutherland.

The center, he explained, will better coordinate firefighting resources between the three agencies.