More than 260,000 liters of water and 109 water drops have been made over the mountains of The Peak Natural Park on the island of Providencia, to extinguish the flames that consume the flora and fauna of the archipelago, Operation that is only possible with the mobile aeronautical fueling system “Forward Area Refueling Equipment”-FARE that the Institution has and that was transported in a C-295 aircraft of the Military Transport Air Command-CATAM, to provide support for this forest emergency.
This outstanding capacity leads to supplying up to 5,000 gallons of fuel to aircraft that are on operations in remote places. This is how the crew of the C-295 safely transported the equipment and personnel necessary to operate the FARE from San Andrés to the island of Providencia, as well as the Batt Bulk Aviation Transport Tank- BATT, which consists of two tanks with 500 gallons of fuel each, to supply the liquid to the FARE team.
The use of these Resources has been indispensable to carry out the firefighting missions, taking into account that the El Embrujo Airport, which serves Providencia, does not have fuel supply systems for the operation of the helicopters with the Bambi Bucket system, which would imply the aircraft refueling at the nearest airport, in this case, the one on San Andrés Island, approximately 50 miles, that is, 30 minutes of flight, far from the place of the emergency.
Source: CATAM and CACOM-5 Strategic Communications
