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.
Flying 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.
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.
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 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.
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. Their goal is to be readily available for fires in remote areas or ones caused by lightning during our July/August monsoon season.
All of these “tools” serve a unique purpose and are national resources through BLM and the U.S. Forest Service, meaning they can be called anywhere in the United States at any time to render aid for wildfires.
But 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.
Pilots and smokejumpers agree that Cedar City is at the top of their bidding list during fire season because of the location, beauty and small-town feel.
Safety is their No. 1 priority on the job, not only for one another but for the life and property they vow to protect every day. It all comes together like a well-oiled machine at the Cedar City Interagency Air Center, from dispatch to air attack commanders to the fleet of aircraft that we see in the sky.
We are thankful for the partnerships they foster across the United States as part of the BLM-Color Country District Fire and Aviation Program, and we are proud to have them call Cedar City home during the summer months.
Ed note: This article was submitted by Cedar City officials. Click here to visit the Cedar City government website.