Many helicopters fought massive forest fire

A record-breaking forest fire has raged in central Sweden for many days, starting in the afternoon of 31 July 2014. The fire developed to the biggest wildfire yet seen in the country in modern time and the situation was upgraded to a national emergency within six days.

The rescue work called for a large number of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft from a wide range of units and operators. Authorities, who evacuated more than 1 000 citizens, were worried that the fire would reach the city of Norberg if the inferno continued to spread, but that was avoided. The most intense day, which recorded temperatures near 35°C and heavy winds, saw the fire spreading more than 10 kilometers to the northwest. When the fire calmed down the affected area covered roughly 20 kilometers in a northwest-southeast direction and approximately eight kilometers at the widest point. The fire, which left one person dead and one critically injured, was deemed under control in the morning of 11 August. It covered a total of 13 800 hectare (approximately 34 100 acre) and destroyed roughly 25 buildings.

At the most, more than 20 air units were deployed in the area. Military and civil, national and international – all teamed up to fight the fire. The civil operators Stockholms Helikoptertjänst, HeliAir Sweden, Scandair Helicopter, Arlanda Helicopter and Helitrans were engaged in the water bombings, as well as up to four HKP 10 Super Pumas that were engaged from the early stages of the fire. Four fixed-wing firefighting aircraft from Italy and France, facilitated by the European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), participated as well.

The Swedish Armed Forces Helicopter Wing deployed several UH-60M Black Hawks (HKP 16) to the scene for reconnaissance and evacuation. On 4 August, the most intense day, a Black Hawk courageously saved five forest workers that had been forced to flee into a lake in the fire area. The people were rescued in very problematic flying conditions, but they all escaped unharmed. Earlier the same day a Black Hawk crew evacuated nine volunteers that had been trapped by the flames.

The Swedish Coast Guard deployed a Dash 8 aircraft as an overhead on-scene coordinator and the Helicopter Wing utilized a few HKP 15s (Agusta 109) for heat-sensing operations and documentation tasks.

The helicopter units that were used to battle the fire were:
3000-litre class: 2 helicopters (Bell 214)
2000-litre class: 3-4 helicopters (HKP 10 Super Puma)
1000-litre class: 4 helicopters (AS350B3, AS350B2 and SA.315 Lama)
600-litre class: 2 helicopters (AS350BA and Long Ranger)
500-litre class: 4 helicopters (MD500)

The four 6000-litre CL-415 water bomber airplanes worked on the between 6-10 August. Adding to that, two Jet Ranger helicopters were used in a parallel effort to protect the Engelsberg Ironwork.

Starting from 10 August, the air units were gradually reduced due to the damped progress of the fire. From 13 August a team of three civil water-bombing helicopters remained for the final air-extinction works. The last extinguishing helicopters left on 17 August, 18 days after the fire broke out. The Swedish Armed Forces kept some reconnaissance helicopters on scene for yet some time.

On 13 August 32 of the worst affected citizens were given the chance to see the overwhelming damage first-handed through a flight in the Helicopter Wing’s Black Hawks.

A featured story covering the fire will be published on Nordic Rotors shortly.