A forest fire broke out in the mountains north of 96k of Provincial Highway 14 in Ren-Ai Township, Nantou on December 12, 2016. As people and vehicle could not reach the location due to steep terrain, Nantou County Fire Department sent an emergency request to NASC of MOI for helicopter fire-extinguishing support after received the report at 15:30. Upon receipt of the request, NASC immediately dispatched UH-60M Black Hawk (No. NA-703) of Squadron 3, the 2nd Wing (stationed at Taichung Ching Chuan Kang Airport) to implement the fire-extinguishing mission. This is the first time that NASC implemented forest fire extinguishing mission after taking over UH-60M Black Hawk.
The flight crew took off at 15:55 after checked the weather conditions according to the standard operating procedures. As the fire scene was located in a high altitude landscape with mountains and the weather changed rapidly in mountains, the crew quickly drew up the route to the fire scene. After the helicopter arrived in the target area at 16:15, the crew found that the fire engulfed approximately 2 hectares and kept spreading upwards as a line of fire literally 200 m 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 were spread to put out this fire. The mission was completed successfully.
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 decommissioned on July 1 of 2016, UH-60M Black Hawk stepped in to take on this enormous challenge. To allow a seamless transition and bring out the best of the new helicopters, NASC worked together with the Forestry Bureau immediately for a series of joint air-land forest firefighting exercise as soon as the UH-60M Black Hawk 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 future generations.