C-130s continue to drop retardent over Texas fires

Published April 26, 2011
By Fred Noack

Abilene, Texas -- Air National Guard MAFFS units staged at Dyess Air Force Base were requested to support two fires in western Texas.

One C-130 from the 146th Air Wing of the California Air National Guard (ANG), Port Hueneme, California, is responding to the Fuller Ranch Fire in Scurry County.

One C-130 from the 146th Air Wing of the California ANG, Port Hueneme, California, and a C-130 from the Wyoming ANG, Cheyenne, Wyoming and the 145th Air Wing of the North Carolina ANG, Charlotte, North Carolina are responding to the Deaton Cole Fire in Val Verde County.

MAFFS is a portable fire retardant delivery system that can be inserted into military C-130 aircraft to convert them to air tankers when the civilian air tanker fleet is fully committed. A total of eight MAFFS units are available for use in C-130 H and J model aircraft.

The military C-130's equipped with slide-in MAFFS units can drop up to 3,000 gallons of retardant or water on wildfires. Trained military units with the MAFFS equipment are activated to supplement the civilian airtanker program during periods of high wildland fire activity.

Congress established the authority for the MAFFS program in the early 1970's to support wildland firefighting through an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service. The military aircraft are requested by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and activated through the U.S. Northern Command, based on an agreement with the Department of Defense.

For more information about MAFFS go to http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/aviation/fixed_wing/maffs/index.html