#tw wildfire

[hieronymusbotched]

huge cowabummer that everything's on fire and that my lungs are being eaten by smoke but the fire is literally gorgina at night

[judas-iscaryot]

geriatric stray cat is NOT happy with being trapped (had to catch her in case we need to evacuate her from a wildfire)

ID: A zoomed in photo of an old tortoiseshell cat who looks like she's glaring. Only her head is visible in frame, as she is sitting behind a cardboard box. End ID

[sanguine-salvation]

// having an anxiety attack at the moment because there's a fire a few cities away and I am really deathly afraid of wildfires, and there's no evac notice for us yet but the wind is blowing the smoke up here and it's all I can smell or think about

[bekolxeram]

I'm not American, but I've been following the Southern California wildfires closely. My thoughts go out to all the victims. Check out how you can help here, or how to get help if you're one of those affected here.

But today I want to talk about drone activities in wildfire stricken areas.

I've seen aerial photos depicting the aftermath of the LA wildfires going around online aviation communities. I browsed through the instagram account of the original poster, they are a professional photographer documenting the ongoing disaster to garner attention for the victims and the first responders working 24/7 on the ground. Their drone photos seem to be a misguided attempt at citizen journalism.

But before I could fully react to this piece of information, news came out that a drone collided with a firefighting aircraft.

The aircraft involved is C-GQBE, a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper sent in by the government of Québec to provide aerial firefighting aid. It collided with a civilian drone while on an air attack mission in the afternoon of Jan 9, resulting in a small punctured hole on the leading edge of one of its wings. Luckily, the drone didn't hit any major component crucial to flight safety, it merely damaged the skin, and no life was lost in this incident.

It may seem like easily fixable, but aerial firefighting aircrafts go through unusual stress due to rapid and frequent fluctuation of altitude and weight, any damage to their skin has to be repaired and thoroughly examined before they're allowed to be airborne if you don't want them to fall apart mid-air. That's why C-GQBE has been grounded since the incident on Thursday.

One of the major factors hampering fire containment effort is the strong gust preventing firefighting aircrafts from doing their job safely when the fires first started. Firefighting pilots are now working tirelessly to delay the spread of fire as much as they can before the winds pick back up in a few days. Please do not fly unnecessary aircrafts into the air and make their work more difficult. They're racing against the clock here.

Even if, for some reason, you must deploy drones near the wildfires, please check the FAA Temporary Flight Restriction map beforehand and make sure you never fly into those areas. Otherwise, it would be a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison and up to $20,000 penalty in civil court.

Firefighting pilots are risking their lives, flying as low as 100 feet above ground to make an effective air drop in hopes of containing the fire. It's not ordinary circumstance.

All the news helicopters congesting the LA airspace have got it. They're livestreaming the whole thing. Your service is not needed in this area.

[fouralignments]

We're having hurricane force wind, 50 thousand without power due to wind, its blowing up dust and smoke; under extreme wildfire threat. There smaller fires popping up everywhere.

[gemsofgreece]

Yesterday in the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece. Photo by Kosmas Koumianos.

Like all of South Europe and Turkey, Greece has been going through an extreme elongated heatwave and is fighting about 80 wildfires scattered throughout the country. The temperature reached 45 degrees Celsius in several places, making the conditions of fighting the fires unbearable.

[eldestsiblingsyndrome]

Turkey is BURNING

tw distressing footage, wildfires

As a result of the forest fires that broke out and continued in different parts of the country, as of August 3rd 2021 8pm (GMT+3), an estimated total of 157,860 hectares of land, 2397 buildings, 1082 households, and 5922 people were affected.

credit: radicalized_faghag on instagram

(look at the first reblog for links)

captions under the cut

Here's some context on the #helpturkey posts that have been circulating bc without context these posts run the risk of being emptied out as pray4turkey virtue-signaling.

Turkey is the Mediterranean country hit the hardest bt wildfires not bc of any natural reasons but bc of the negligence and corruption of the ruling party. Even though global warming definitely worsened their intensity, wildfires are always expected in a heatwave.

Of the affected countries Greece owns 20 firefighting planes, France 26, Spain 17, and Italy 19, whereas Turkey has 0 functional ones and had to lease 3 planes from Russia for 1.3 million liras per day. (The presidential palace boasts 13 planes and AKP officials use private jets for everything so this is not a matter of not being able to afford planes.)

The funds and facilities of the responsible institution (Turkish Aeronotical Association) have been plundered for years. And now state officials, while admitting there's not a single extinguishing plane that can be used, are trying to shift the blame to Turkey's eternal scapegoats, the Kurds, implying that the cause of the fires could be terrorist "sabotage". The murder of the Dedeoğlu family was a direct consequence of this rhetoric and there are reports that ultranationalist gangs are patrolling villages and attacking people they suspect to be Kurdish.

Pro-gov media claims everything's under control but mayors of the burning cities are going on camera to beg for helicopters and planes because the flames are unstoppable and the wind is blowing strong.

In the past days the goverment selectively accepted aid from countries like Russia & Azerbaijan but not others. AKP doesn't want to appear weak and instead of focusing on putting out the fires, they're fuiling their propaganda machine with the hope they can score a few votes by fearmongering.

Municipalities are helpless because under the presidential system, many of their funds and operational powers have been taken away and centralized. Locals and volunteers are left to their own devices.

So people in Turkey took it upon themselves to ask for international help and pressure the goverment to accept help from the EU and others. Because otherwise no air support is on its way and everything will burn.

[deadandphilgames]

Allie there’s a full-blown wildfire happening rn in my community, and my freaking high school is still having school today isn’t that the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard?

There’s literally no roads open and smoke billowing behind it. I was supposed to go in for my stats exam today, but now I don’t think I’m gonna drive myself up with a blazing 0% contained fire🤡

oh my god i hope youre okay, yeah definitely fuck school its not as important as staying safe <3