California firefighters helicopters were inactive because of bureaucracy

Because of bureaucratic delays and imperfections of the legal framework more than twenty firefighters National Guard helicopters, Navy and the United States Coast Guard were unable to leave in time to extinguish forest fires in California, transmits Associated Press.

Moreover, two firefighting aircraft C-130 National Guard, which can carry about 11,360 liters of reagents, slowing the spread of fire and burning never went into the air.

By law, National Guard helicopters fire or air force must necessarily accompany the special firefighters' switch-board operators "that indicate in what should be a place reset reagents or water. But they arrived too late.

Reports of the first 15 forest fires have emerged on Saturday night October 20. On Sunday, 21 October, the Bureau of Emergency Situations California requested help from the National Guard. On the same day, 19 helicopters were ready for the departure.

Meanwhile navodchikam firefighters took 24 hours to prepare for the assignment. Almost the same time it took to form the crews of firefighters and National Guard. Helicopters rose in the air only Tuesday, 23 October.

Thus, as the representative of the Senate Commission believes California Dana Rorabacher (Dana Rohrabacher), the time for which it would be possible to eliminate fires, as they have not yet reached huge proportions, was missing. By Tuesday the fire had already spread to 390 square miles, the number of houses destroyed by flames rose from 34 to 700 and perevalilo.

Fire came out of control, and helicopters uzhu could not save the situation. However, the two firefighters C-130 aircraft, which can only weaken if not, then at least in halting the spread of fire, were unable to leave because they were not installed tanks for the transport of reactants.

Ten years ago, Congress decided to replace old tanks on aircraft for safety reasons. Older tanks have withdrawn, designers have developed new, but they do not come under the plane. The project transformed again and sent for approval to the Air Force and the National Agency for the Protection of Forests, but that the delayed "due to technical and design complexity."

For its part, the authorities in California rejected all accusations of bureaucracy and negligence, arguing that the use of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft have been impossible because of the strong wind.

"Anyone who complains about the lack of aircraft, just want to complain," said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. - If there were planes from all over the world, they would not be able to fly out of a strong wind. "