Fighting wildfires is big business in Canada, as the seasons become longer, drier and the danger greater. One Port Alberni-based aviation company is perched on the leading edge of technology when it comes to conquering wildfires.
"Last year was the worst season on record and they continue to get worse," says Britt Coulson, president and chief operating officer of Coulson Aviation. The company maintains Canadian operations at the Alberni Valley Regional Airport but are known around the world for their advanced aerial firefighting equipment. They have bases in Australia, California in the United States and continue to expand in South America.
Climate change is affecting wildfires, and the fires in turn are harmful to the environment because of their high carbon emissions, says Coulson. It's a two-pronged problem that aerial wildfire fighting companies are racing to solve.
"I think (experts) say for every degree the temperature rises, fires will increase by 600 percent," Coulson said. "It takes a lot of years to get up a degree, but every year it could be 20, 30 percent of fires as it continues to ramp up. It's a big environmental issue."
Wildfires鈥攁nd by extension, firefighting鈥攊s "almost the highest single carbon emitter...in Canada. The fires in Canada last year emitted more carbon than five times all the cars in Canada," he added. "If we could minimize that, (we could meet) the carbon emission goals much easier.
"Having faster, more capable, larger air tankers are really going to be able to help against that war, against wildfire both in Canada, the United States as well as internationally."
In mid-May, Coulson unveiled its latest "tool in the wildfire fighting toolbox," its first 737-700NG series jet purchased from U.S.-based Southwest Airlines. Coulson Aviation intends to convert the former commercial jetliner into a large air tanker capable of dropping 5,000 gallons of water or retardant. To date, the company has been converting C-130 Hercules as well as Boeing 737-300s into air tankers. The latest aircraft will be its largest yet.
Coulson anticipates the 737-700 project will take 18 to 24 months: the first jet is considered the "engineering" aircraft, and will be the prototype for the new heavy conversions.
With all the work Coulson has on its schedule and planned for the future, the company is planning an expansion to its facilities at the Alberni Valley Regional Airport. The 737-700s won't have a heavy payload while they are undergoing conversion so the airport infrastructure鈥攔unway, taxiways, apron鈥攃an still handle the tankers, Coulson said.
"The larger airplanes...the length is not as bad but it's the width. When it comes in here, the engines are almost at the maximum width of what it could be.
"We are definitely out of room and continue to expand faster than we can build our infrastructure up."
Their space is slowly filling with temporary hangars and other structures. Coulson has leased property between their existing space and the road to the gravel pit off the threshold to the southeast. "We've got a construction manager that we've brought on board. We're planning to put a three-storey office building and tech building as well as expand our training courses because our ATO is going very well," he said.
"We're going to expand there and then we're in our final planning stages. I would say we'll be submitting for our building permit in the next month." Geotechnical surveys have been done and the building design is through the engineering phase.
The existing building will be repurposed for helicopter conversions and smaller projects. The temporary tents will eventually come down too.
"We're almost ready to submit our building permit for the new big hangar."
Depending on the timeline, the first 737-700 tanker modification will take place in the new hangar.
