Red Tape Fuels Raging Wildfire (Feds Fiddle as CA Burns)

[RamboLiberal]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/red_tape_fuels_.html

Bureaucratic red tape is preventing two planes modified for aerial firefighting from combating the wildfires raging today in California.

A DC-10 and a Boeing-747 "Supertanker," specially equipped with firefighting technology, have been waiting for days for the U.S. Forest Service and FAA to approve them to fight the rapidly spreading wildfires that have already consumed 84,035 acres.

Local residents are furious about the sitting ducks that could potentially save their homes. "This is ridiculous. The Lockwood valley is already under a voluntary evacuation order, and there are a lot of elderly people living up there," said one resident who lives near Lockwood Valley, an area threatened by the fires.

The DC-10 was used by the California Department of Forestry with great success to fight a California fire in July on land under the state's jurisdiction, according to Rick Hatton, Managing Partner for 10 Tanker Air Carrier who owns the plane.

But this time the plane is grounded because the fire is on land under federal jurisdiction, and according to a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman, the agency has not yet had time to give it federal approval.

[Tikki]

1. This photo is from last years floods in this area....

...and now with an El Nino predicted and with the scorched glazed earth here from this fire
and the areas that drain these rivers here may be unable to absorb much
of the anticipated rain-fall....

We are headed for a mess..with no help in sight..


Tikki