A forest fire broke out in the mountains north of 96k along Route Tai 14 at Ren-Ai, Nantou on Dec 12, 2016. The terrain was too steep for people or vehicle to reach. Nantou County Fire Department received the information at 15:30 and sent a request to National Airborne Service Corps for helicopters for firefighting. Upon receiving the request, the Corps scrambled a UH-60M Blackhawk (numbered NA-703) of the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Wing (at Chingchuankang Airport, Taichung) for the firefighting mission. This is the first forest firefighting mission requested of the Corps ever since the Blackhawk fleet arrived.
The mission crew took off at 15:55 by following the standard operation procedure and checking the local weathers. The crew devised the flight route to the fire scene every swift as the scene was located high up in the mountains with complicated terrain features and the weather changed rapidly in the mountains. The Blackhawk arrived at the target area at 16:15 and the crew found that the fire engulfed approximately 2 hectares and kept spreading upwards as a line of fire literally 200m in length. Seeing this, the crew decided to land at a makeshift helipad at Wushe to install the firefighting bucket before heading for Wanda Reservoir for water. The strong mountains fueled the fire and there were high-voltage towers and power cables not far away from the fire scene, which made the firefighting more difficult. Keeping his head leveled, the pilot flew the helicopter calmly and dropped the water on the fire. On the ground, the firefighters took the advantage of the assistance from the helicopter and slowly gained control over the spreading fire. In total, 4 tons of water was dropped to help put out this fire, a job well done overall.
Flying a helicopter to put out a forest fire in the mountains is truly a mission for daredevils. The helicopter has to stay directly above the dangerous fire in order to dump water and extinguish the fire. It requires well performed daily training and the chemistry developed among the crewmembers, in addition to the extreme flights skills of the pilot, to drop water on the fire accurately. As the B-234 Chinook fleet retired from the corps on Jul 1 2016, UH-60M Blackhawks stepped in to take on this enormous challenge. To allow a seamless transition and bring out the best of the new helicopters, the Corps worked together with the Forestry Bureau immediately for a series of joint air-land forest firefighting exercise as soon as the UH-60M Blackhawks arrived. By simulating a forest fire with live exercise, it develops the chemistry between the agencies involved, improve the response capability, familiarize with firefighting skills, reduce the loss of precious forest resource and finally protect the forests for the generations to come.