Montana companies are assisting with firefighting efforts in southern California. At Neptune Aviation, an aerial firefighting company based in Missoula, maintenance crews work throughout the winter to keep their fleet ready to deploy across the country.
Neptune’s hangar is buzzing with activity. Around a dozen mechanics are spread out across two of the company’s BA 146 airplanes. Kevin Condit is Neptune’s spokesperson:
“You have people working on jet engines. You have people working on — Chris was working on avionics inside that plane. Someone might be working on the fuel system or the tank system,” Condit says.
Neptune’s fleet has nine aircraft, former passenger planes retrofitted by the company to store and deploy thousands of gallons of fire retardant.
“What our goal is, is to always have three planes in the winter months that are ready to go. They normally fly on fires from about March 1st through early December. This year is the outlier. When we were flying in California in January,” Condit says.
Three of Neptune’s planes are fighting fires that have devastated parts of the Los Angeles area. Those aircraft have been in California since May, under contact with the U.S. Forest Service.
Each year, the Forest Service spends hundreds of millions of dollars on contracts that secure access to fleets like Neptune’s. That means the company has to keep its planes ready year-round.
“People think of fire season as a shortened season where Neptune must not be busy in the winter months. But really the opposite is true because we're getting those aircraft ready for the next fire season,” Condit says.
