Former Warrnambool pilot Tony Franc has joined thousands of emergency services personnel to help the United States with its huge fire-fighting efforts.
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As of Tuesday noon (AEST) there were 85 large fires burning over 1.5 million acres in 13 states. The worst affected area is along the US west coast in states including California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Mr Franc is now living in New South Wales, with his family, and is employed by Coulson Aviation Australia which flew the aircraft to the US mid last week.
The Boeing 737 Marie Bashir Fireliner is New South Wales Rural Fire Service owned and is operated by Coulson Aviation.
The Fireliner is capable of dropping 15,000 litres of retardant or water.
The Coulson Aviation team left from Sydney's RAAF Base in Richmond on July 21 and is on a 45-day deployment to help US fire agencies.
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A Coulson Aviation spokeswoman said the team had arrived in San Bernadino, California and was preparing to assist crews on the ground, following a request from US fire agencies for additional assistance.
"The team members are proud to assist communities under threat of fire and fire agency personnel on the ground where they can, across the world," the spokeswoman said.
"The aircraft will be crewed by both Australian and North American Coulson team members during its time overseas."
She said aerial firefighting work had become a real passion for Mr Franc over the past decade which included fire bombing across 12 fire seasons for Victorian fire agencies.
Mr Franc has extensive background in the aviation industry, including commercial airlines and operated his own flying school in regional Victoria. He and his wife Melissa ran Air Warrnambool for a number of years and were based at the Warrnambool Airport. They now live in Kurrajong Heights, about an hour out of Sydney, and have two children Ava, 8, and Jack, 3.
The spokeswoman said the 737 would join a number of Coulson Aviation-owned and operated aircraft currently in service to fire agencies across the US. Coulson was the first aerial firefighting company in the world to modify Boeing 737s into approved Fireliners like the Marie Bashir.
The US-based National Interagency Fire Center reported there were currently 23 fires burning in Idaho, 19 in Montana, 11 in Washington, and eight blazes in California.
The agency said more than 22,400 wildland fire fighters and incident management teams were assigned to incidents.
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