by Marc Mullis
When I was released from fires in Idaho last fall, I went straight to Fort Stockton, Texas and picked up the AT-502A that I fly for brushwork. Except for a short Christmas break, five months were spent in New Mexico and West Texas applying Spike pellets to sagebrush and creosote brush.

Everywhere I went, the ranchers complained about the dry conditions and high fire danger. In mid-March, the supply of available pellets had been used up and the company that manufactures them said no more would be available until the first week of May. This meant I would be getting a break from brushwork until fire season got cooking.

As I flew the AT-502 back to Beaumont for maintenance, I wondered what I would do with my upcoming time off. I arrived at M&M’s home base on a Friday evening and decided that I would just drive down to the beach the next day and relax.

It was a beautiful Saturday to be on the beach. I had just ordered lunch at a little surf side restaurant when my phone rang. It was Larry Mills, M&M’s fire coordinator, calling. He said that a resource order was coming in for two Single Engine Air Tankers to be in Fort Stockton (KFST) by 0800 the next day. I could not believe what I was hearing! I had just been there and now I was heading back. The aircraft that I usually flew was down for inspections, but T-424 was in the hangar at Southeast Texas Regional Airport, ready to go. If I wanted to make it to Fort Stockton by dark, I would have to hurry. SEAT pilot James Daniel would be bringing the other tanker out of Coolidge, Arizona. Both of our support trucks would also be coming out of Arizona.

I ate my lunch as I drove the thirty miles back to my hotel to check out. After gathering my things, it was to the office to get the resource order from the fax machine. Having been in Fort Stockton before, I knew hotel rooms were hard to find. Oilfield workers and windmill construction crews kept the hotels filled to capacity. I asked one of the girls in the office to start working on finding us rooms. By 1430, I was off the ground in T-424 and headed west. I would have to make one fuel stop on the 550-nautical mile flight. It would have to be short if I was to beat pumpkin time.

The sun was slipping below the Davis Mountains as I entered the traffic pattern at KFST. I was finishing up tying down the tanker when I heard James coming from the opposite direction. It was totally dark as he rolled to a stop. A call from Ronda in Beaumont let us know that she had found the last rooms in town. We caught a ride to the hotel, checked in and collapsed in our rooms. It had been a long day. It was going to be an even longer day for our drivers, as they would not get in until early morning!

Everyone reported for duty at 0800, even our drivers. The next few days would see the small West Texas airport transform into the largest active tanker base in the country. There had been two more SEATs on the ramp when we arrived the night before. We found out they belonged to G-B Aerial. The pilots were brothers, Mike and Robert Hanneman, good friends that would be a pleasure to work with. Familiar faces started appearing as government employees began to arrive. A spare office in the FBO soon became the operations center.

The first week on duty was rather slow. We flew over one small fire at the outskirt of Odessa. I had business to attend to in Arizona and Utah, so the boss sent his son, Andy Mitchell, to take over for me while I was gone. If things did not change, it did not look like I would be missing anything.

April 21 found me back on duty at KFST. In my absence, the tankers had been moved around and I was now using T-409 and James was in his regular ship. I had been gone for one month and only two small fires had been fought in that period. The slump was about to end.

The morning briefing on April 23 announced changes in the weather. The forecast called for storms to the north and east of us, but only cloudy for our area. It sounded like it would be another slow day as the pilots and crews shuffled out of the operations shack and into the ready room (read TV lounge).

By noon, it became apparent that the weather forecast had been way off the mark. There was convective activity on all quadrants and the distant rumble of thunder signaled the presence of lightning. Hail is always associated with this type of weather in West Texas, so there was a mad scramble to get the aircraft under cover. Four AT-802s take up a lot of space, but the WW II-era hangers at Fort Stockton were able to accept them all, as well as the rest of the aircraft on the ramp.

It was only moments after the storms had passed that we got the call to launch all of the SEATs. A smoke had been reported east of Alpine! Being very familiar with this country, I knew it would be in the Glass Mountains, some very rugged country. There was as much of a mad scramble to get the Air Tractors out of the hangars, as there was to get them in only an hour earlier. Teamwork made it happen. In minutes, all four tankers were airborne and headed southbound the 45 nautical miles to the Highway 90 Fire.

When the gaggle of tankers arrived on scene the fire was racing up the foothills of the Glass Mountains. We would have to stop it before it reached the steeper slopes. Excellent directions from Air Attack, water drops from a helo-tanker and precision retardant drops by the SEATs had the fire in check by sunset. Ground crews hiked in that night to put an end to it.

Returning to KFST after my last load, I enjoyed watching the West Texas sunset over the distant Davis Mountains. Passing Cathedral Peak, the king of the Glass Mountains, I happened to glance down and see a whiff of smoke in the brush and grass.

It was a sleeper from the day’s lightning attack that had not yet made itself known. Maybe the night’s humidity would snuff it, by morning we would know.

The dispatch was waiting on us when we arrived at the base the next morning. The incident name box said it all. It was to be the Cathedral Fire! Brisk overnight winds had turned the whiff into a monster. We did not need a latitude and longitude because the smoke column to the south gave the fire pilots guidance.

The next four days became a blur. Air Attack ordered all available aerial firefighting assets that were available. Soon the airspace over the fire was full of aluminum with as many as a dozen aircraft occupying it at a time. Pilots timed out daily and went from tanker base to bed to tanker base and then did it again. The terrain was too steep for ground support, so it was up to the aerial assets to protect property and lives.

On day five we awoke to fog and drizzle. Once again, not in the forecast but very welcome, Mother Nature had decided the outcome of the Cathedral Fire. She did a grand job of putting it down and giving the ground crews a chance to hike in and put it out.

Over the rest of my 12-day duty cycle, I flew over 40 hours on fires. I am writing this on my days off in early May. It is time for Arizona and New Mexico to start calling for SEATs. Maybe I will get some time off next year!