Forest Service, meaning they can be called anywhere in the United States at any time to render aid for wildfires.īut what makes Cedar City unique for these operations? With its unique elevation and centralized location compared with surrounding airports, Cedar City offers these resources convenient lodging and food, as well as fuel and retardant that is loaded onto aircraft based on elevation and several other factors. Their goal is to be readily available for fires in remote areas or ones caused by lightning during our July/August monsoon season.Īll of these “tools” serve a unique purpose and are national resources through BLM and the U.S. The Boise Smoke Jumpers, an elite crew of 12 parachuting firefighters, also travel to Cedar City every summer from the Bureau of Land Management Smokejumper Base in Idaho. These pilots have a variety of backgrounds, leading them to where they are today taking direction from Air Attack at the Cedar City Interagency Center, navigating difficult conditions such as wind, smoke, heat, low-level topography and other hazardous expert-level conditions to drop retardant and slow the spread of wildfire. Pilots and support staff from all over the United States might call Cedar City home for a minimum of 90 days at a time, spending time away from their families, staying in the town’s hotels, dining in its restaurants and frequenting the stores. These specialized aircraft cover a major portion of the southwestern United States and can stage at the airport until being called to their next fire assignment, or as a pit stop loading up on fuel or fire retardant. George Newsįlying over Cedar City, you’ll see smaller Single Engine Air Tankers and Large Air Tankers, as well as firefighting helicopters, which look significantly different than Southern Utah University’s flight school aircraft that we see more regularly. FILE – Single-engine plane on the tarmac at Cedar City Regional Airport | Photo courtesy of Cedar City government, Cedar City News / St. CEDAR CITY - Every summer, the Cedar City Regional Airport experiences increased activity due to wildfire season and the Cedar City Interagency Air Center, which operates from the Air Tanker Base at the airport.

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