By admin 
MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — Wildfires burning across Arizona and neighboring states have stretched firefighting resources, with one air tanker base serving as a central launch point for aerial operations.
Read more Driver dead, another hurt after head-on collision along busy Mesa roadway
The Gateway Air Tanker Base has been operating at a sustained pace since late May, dispatching tankers to fires across the region.
“We’ve been off to the races this year pretty much nonstop since the end of May,” said Chris Price, Gateway Air Tanker Base manager.
Nine fires, four states
As of the time of this report, the base was supporting nine active fires: four in Arizona, two in New Mexico, two in Colorado and one in Utah.
Clint Remmington, deputy fire staff officer for the Tonto National Forest, said air tankers are deployed to protect specific targets.
“These are getting ordered to protect what we call values at risk. So it could be communities, homes, infrastructure, power lines,” Remmington said. “To try to slow or progress fire to buy time for our folks on the ground to get in and coordinate with the retardant on the ground and give us a better chance of holding a fire edge.”
READ MORE: Fire restrictions tighten across much of Arizona as wildfire risk rises
Strategy drives every deployment
Not every fire receives an air tanker, and not every ridge receives a retardant drop. Price said each deployment involves coordination across multiple resources.
“There’s a lot of strategy and thought that goes into ordering these,” Price said. “So it’s a communication effort between crews on the ground, air attacks in the air, coordinating all the aviation resources, helicopters, fire engines.”
Read more Small plane crashes on dirt road near Yuma; no serious injuries
Competition for resources
The demand extends beyond Arizona’s borders, creating competition for available aircraft.
“Now we’re competing with resources for the north. And we’ve got people that have fires in Washington and Montana and Utah and Nevada and Colorado,” Remmington said.
That competition has kept the base in near-constant operation. Price described the pace once a fire call comes in.
“Once the fire bell goes off, then everybody scatters,” he said.
During peak fire conditions, the cycle does not stop between missions.
“These guys are very, very busy,” Price said. “And during major fire conditions like we’re seeing right now, that cycle repeats all day long. Land, refuel and relaunch.”
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Read more Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce expected to hold wedding celebration at Madison Square Garden this week