With contracts in Alberta and British Columbia — and periodic forays into American air space — Air Spray Aviation Services is accustomed to fighting distant fires.
But a blaze the company is preparing to battle will pull it far beyond its usual theatre of operations.
Air Spray, which operates out of the Red Deer Regional Airport, planned to send a Lockheed Electra water bomber and a small “bird dog” aircraft to Mexico today. A second, similar pairing is likely to follow within days, said Paul Lane, the company’s chief financial officer.
“This is what we call a casual hire,” he said of the arrangement, which will see the Air Spray crews combat wildfires in the northeastern state of Coahuila.
“We’ve never had a callout before from them.”
Lane said his company’s water bombers will attempt to establish an edge to the advancing fires.
“They need that wall of retardant to basically make it easier to work a fire from the ground.
“They’re utterly under-resourced in terms of any operational capacity.”
Lane said the conditions the Canadians will deal with in Mexico will be comparable to what they’re used to.
“The terrain is actually very similar to Alberta and B.C.”
In addition to grassland, deciduous and coniferous trees are being affected by the fires. And like Western Canada, the encroachment of people and their homes into wilderness areas makes such fires dire.
One challenge of operating in Mexico would normally be arranging for the necessary flight permits, said Lane. But this process has been fast-tracked due to the urgency of the situation.
Language differences will be another issue that the Air Spray crews must deal with.
“One of our engineers is Spanish speaking, which helps.”
Because demand for Air Spray’s equipment is usually not that high until May, the company has surplus capacity to send to Mexico. Lane said casual hires are not uncommon for the company.
“We get dispatched right across Canada,” he said, noting that it also helped out in Alaska last year.
There’s a possibility, said Lane, that Mexican authorities might contract Air Spray to be on standby in future years. Such an arrangement would be more cost-efficient for the Mexicans than having to hire the company on an emergency basis.
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com