Airlift supplied Black Crater fire spike camp

As residents of Crossroads and Edgington Road were returning home Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning last week, firefighters were launching one of the most logistically challenging and critical operations of the fire.

Helicopter crews were airlifting supplies to a spike camp in the deep woods on the southwest side of the fire, where fire crews would camp close to fire lines. By camping in the woods instead of returning to base at Sisters Middle School, firefighters saved as much as four hours a day in travel time - hours they could instead devote to the difficult task of building fire lines in rugged wilderness terrain.

Everything from hose line to a portable water tank was trucked into a gravel pit in the fire area and then air lifted to the camp by a 1968-vintage Huey helicopter owned by a private contractor called Withrotor and piloted by George Arthur.

George Yocom, a Tollgate resident, was the helicopter manager who communicated with the pilot. The safety officer was Jack Carpenter, a former engineer with the Sisters Ranger District who retired in 1994. Amy Kazmier of the Prineville Air Center ran overall "heliop" under the supervision of John Caffin.

The operation required skill and precision. The pilot dropped a heavy cable to a position identified by ground crewman Jacob Welsh.

Safety is a great concern. The ground crewman must clear the area to make sure the cable doesn't get dropped on him and must let it touch the ground before he grabs it. Otherwise, a static charge could literally knock him to the ground.

Again and again, Arthur demonstrated his skill by dropping the cable precisely where it was wanted.

Welsh then hooked it up to loads of supplies wrapped in a net for liftoff. All the packing was triple-checked.

Ground crewmen are instructed to stay between bundles; in case something goes wrong they are to throw themselves to the ground beside a load rather than attempting to run clear.

The portable water tank was a key piece of equipment in the air lift. The tank unfolds to hold thousands of gallons of water, which is pumped out to serve the hose lines used by ground crews to mop up the blaze.

The tank is filled by water drops from helicopters.

The heaviest single load hauled to the camp weighed in at 1,875 pounds.

Editor's note: Freelance photographer Gary Miller contributed to this report.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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