Perimeter Solutions, Conair, & Aerial Tanker Operations

This is a snippet of the transcript, sign up to read more.

Do they use the Bambi bucket?

As a pilot, if there's a fire here and a lake nearby, the aircraft has about a four-hour fuel cycle. If the distance between the water source and the fire is around 10 miles, it can revisit every 10 minutes to drop water. In contrast, large air tankers must return to an airport 100 miles away, fill up with retardant, fly back to drop it, and then return to the airport to reload. This cycle can take 30 minutes to an hour, even though large air tankers carry between 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of retardant. The revisit times are significantly less frequent. Retardant and water serve two entirely different purposes.

This is a snippet of the transcript, sign up to read more.

I've seen the USDA documents and the lawsuit with the environmental group. How have you seen the feeling change with the DI changes and Trump in US affairs? How is the view on water and its impact on fish changing?

The United States is one of the most pro-retardant-using countries in the world. If you try to drop retardant in the EU, the entire EU, except for France, believes it's poisonous and won't use it. In Europe, the firefighting fleets predominantly use CL215, CL415, and Fireboss aircraft, which are single-engine air tankers. France is one of the only countries using both water scooping and retardant-delivering aircraft, operated by Sécurité Civile, which is similar to the US Air National Guard. In the United States, there's a strong preference for using retardant, with some resistance to just using water. Water is used, but retardant is the primary choice in the United States.

This is a snippet of the transcript, sign up to read more.

And you're saying this development, with states contracting directly, has been new over the last five years?

It has existed for a long time in California, but some new states have come to the realization. I'll give you an example of what happened in Washington state in 2020. The Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, who is responsible for firefighting efforts, faced a situation in Malden, Washington. A fire occurred on state land, and federal resources were requested. However, they were told that their assets were not a high priority for the nation because there were fires in California. Consequently, the small town burned over, resulting in fatalities. Washington decided to take action and now includes firefighting in the state budget. Washington is one of the more prominent wealth-generating states in the union. They contracted two 415s and two Q400s, establishing their own contract aerial firefighting fleet. This is in addition to some helicopters and single-engine air tankers they already had. They have the ability to pay for and resource these assets, and they control them. That's the key aspect of whoever contracts; they control the resource.

This is a snippet of the transcript, sign up to read more.