The Department of Parks and Wildlife are using the Collie air strip to train air attack supervisors who will combat this seasons bush fires in the South West.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It's always hard to predict what the fire season will bring but with controlled burns and the training of air attack supervisors underway Parks and Wildlife are well prepared.
WATCH: See video of the bomber dropping a load at the Collie Airfield below
Parks and Wildlife fire operations officer-aviation Brad Johnson said Collie is a quiet airfield which makes it ideal to demonstrate how to refuel a water bomber to the three trainees.
"We were there for the morning and did four to five different drops demonstrating a split load, full load and full load with foam drops," Mr Johnson said.
"Most of the trainees this morning have been fire operation officers or operation officers so they already have a good understanding of ground fire procedures before they were nominated to be involved with this role."
Mr Johnson said water bombers are used to support the ground crews and not used to put fires out.
"A full load water bomb drop is 3,100 litres of water, the water is sometimes mixed with foam if lives or properties are under threat and the incident controller gives approval to do so," he said.