The Casper/Natrona County International Airport is more than an Airport! After six years of planning, designing, and construction, the Airport grounds are now the home base for a new BLM Single Engine Air Tankers (SEAT) and Large Air Tankers (LAT) Base used to fight wildfires in Wyoming and surrounding regions. The central location of the base allows the SEATs and LATs to fly to anywhere in Wyoming in under an hour to assist in fighting wildfires.
What is a SEAT and LAT base?
A SEAT and LAT base includes mixing tanks filled with fire retardant material and a connection hose to retrieve water from a fire hydrant, the space allows the two liquids to mix as they are loaded into the aircraft.
Since 2009, the BLM has leased a single acre of land at the Airport as a SEAT base. Now, the newly constructed base is larger, sitting at 5.2 acres, more supportive of aircraft and staff, and completely operated by the BLM. Wildfires in the west are growing in size and frequency and last longer than decades past. When describing the size of wildfires, the BLM now talks in millions of acres, not thousands. In the first year of the SEAT base in 2009, 55 wildfires were responded to. With the increased size and capacity of the new base, the BLM is able to respond to over 150 calls a year, filling a much-needed gap in Wyoming and surrounding areas.
Collaboration with BLM, Wyoming State Forestry Division, and U.S. Forest Service
The SEAT base came into fruition through a theme of collaboration. It is the only base in the country that was jointly built by the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service. Casper is also the exclusive home to two SEAT planes, contracted by the Wyoming State Forestry Division. The modernized base now has the ability to load two planes (SEAT and/or LAT) at the same time with a maximum daily output of 80,000–90,000 gallons of mixed retardant compared to the previous 15,000-gallon output.
Airport Director, Glenn Januska, spoke at the ribbon cutting event of the SEAT/LAT base saying, “We jumped at the opportunity to partner with all the organizations involved in making this a reality. The SEAT base is a true testament that if you have a group of people willing to work together with one shared focus and end goal, you can complete a project of this capacity. I am very proud of the project and to house the facility here at the Airport.”
The future is bright for the base, and this is not where the progress ends for wildfire fighting in Wyoming. Future plans include the construction of a new heli-base adjacent to the SEAT/LAT base for the State Forestry Division. We are thrilled to have been able to help bring each of these agencies together for the sole purpose of getting this base operational for the benefit of Wyoming and surrounding states.
How did the first fire season go? (October 2024 Update)
When the Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) and Large Air Tanker (LAT) Base had its ribbon cutting in June, no one knew the devastating fire season that lay ahead. We sat down with Craig Short, Fire Management Officer with the BLM Wyoming High Plains District, to talk about how the first summer with the newly opened SEAT and LAT Base went and how it impacted aerial wildfire fighting capabilities.
In general, this fire season was above average in both the number of fires and acres burned. In the ten northeastern Wyoming counties Craig is responsible for, over 500,000 acres burned due wildfires. The BLM responded to over 200 fires and flew 456 missions from the SEAT and LAT Base here at C/NCIA. Unlike the previous SEAT Base, the new facility can fill Large Air Tankers (LATs), increasing the amount of retardant that can be stored and used. Last year, the base used 34,000 gallons of retardant flying only SEATs from the base. This year, over 856,000 gallons of retardant were used to fight regional fires thanks to the new larger facility providing the needed space to fill SEATs and LATs.
“The SEAT and LAT Base has been a fantastic facility to have open. We didn’t expect that we would use the tanker base to the extent that we did this year. Our average year sees 90,000 gallons of retardant, which we surpassed this year by almost 10 times. So, it was unexpected, but the base has been a great resource for us to support all of our counties and even neighboring states. It’s been an epic fire year, and having a bigger effort to combat it has been amazing,” says Craig.
The base has impressive numbers when it comes to aerial firefighting operations using SEATs and LATs. A SEAT can get to almost anywhere in the state in just 60 to 75 minutes, and it takes less than two minutes to fill these aircraft with 750 gallons of retardant. On the other hand, the LATs can be anywhere in the state in 30 minutes or less once they are loaded, flying over 300 nautical miles an hour.
Fun fact: LATs can be loaded in less than seven minutes with 3,000 gallons of retardant and be to New Mexico or Arizona in under an hour and a half.
Fire Seasons Are Changing Before Our Eyes
It’s well-known that fires are driven by drought and unseasonably dry conditions. Wyoming experienced a very dry 2023-2024 winter season and an even dryer summer. These conditions led to an abnormal fire season, although it is hard to even capture what a normal fire season is anymore. Craig compared this season to the 1988 fires in Yellowstone when over a million acres burned, saying, “We just haven’t seen a fire season like this.”
To put it in perspective, last year there were under 100 fires that burned just over 4,000 acres. This year over 500,000 acres burned from a staggering 300 fires. The scope and scale of this fire season was unprecedented. The abnormally dry conditions across the entire country are to blame, which puts a strain on resources.
However, the SEAT Base has been a saving grace; without it, wildfire fighting in Wyoming would’ve looked very different. The ability to load LATs at the Base greatly improved air firefighting capabilities and aided firefighters on the ground throughout the state. For instance, in a single day, a record 76,000 gallons were loaded to fight the LaBonte fire in Converse County.
