Fuel shortage threatens to ground firefighting aircraft in West

Airport officials facing jet fuel shortages are concerned they’ll have to wave off planes and helicopters that drop fire retardants during what could be a ferocious wildfire season, potentially endangering surrounding communities.

It’s not clear if fuel supplies and delivery systems can be bolstered in time for this wildfire season to avoid potential problems keeping firefighting aircraft aloft if multiple large fires break out around the West.Airport officials, aviation supply companies and fuel transport companies said demand declined sharply and supply chains atrophied during the coronavirus pandemic. They have yet to bounce back in the Western U.S.

“COVID, it lulled everybody to sleep,” said Mark Haynes, vice president of sales for Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Avfuel Corporation, which supplies aviation fuel across the U.S., including to about half of the nation’s 44 air tanker bases operated by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Western states. Some states also maintain their own tanker bases.

“In the blink of an eye, we can have a fire here within our response area that can bring in one to three DC-10s and a bunch of variable-sized air tankers,” he said. “We can go from a couple thousand gallons a day to 50,000 to 60,000 gallons.”Already this year, there have been more than twice as many acres burned than during the same period last year — and hundreds more fires.

Jeff Cyphers of the Stockton-based aviation fuel distributor Humboldt Pacific LCC, said he’s expanding the company’s fleet of 20 jet fuel tanker trucks to deliver fuel to West Coast states and Idaho, Montana and Utah. He said there’s currently both a shortage of drivers as well as jet fuel to deliver.“The supply chain right now is probably the most fragile I’ve ever seen in my years of experience,” said Cyphers, who said he has been in the industry since 1986.

Use those Electric Planes. You know, those that don't use dirty fossil fuels.

Fear everywhere!

Fuel shortages my ass! Biden’s America is nothing but communist tyranny by design

Better get those windmill powered aircraft ready.

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