There's info on the W.A. DFES site about their use of Helitacs, and the DFES approach to aerial fire-fighting.
DFES - Helitacs
Keep in mind - that even the Americans and Canadians will tell you outright, that major fires are NOT put out by water bombers - the water-bombers hit hot spots, and enable ground crews to get in to attack and suppress the fire.
However, it is very obvious that the current W.A. fleet of Helitacs and the eight fixed-wing Airtractors on hand, are barely able to put a dent in a fire of the size we currently have in W.A.
This fire currently has a front of 222 kms, and has destroyed around 80,000 hectares. It's still burning and is showing no sign of slowing to any extent.
What is needed in an extreme fire such as this is, some serious equipment thrown at it.
The DFES makes a big noise about the money the W.A. Govt spent in 2012/2013 on aerial fire-fighting - quoting a figure of $20M spent.
However, we are currently looking at property and infrastructure losses running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the case of the Yarloop Rail Heritage Workshops, we have lost a world-class piece of rail history that is irreplaceable and of incalculable value.
$20M looks like a pretty miserable outlay, and a case of false economy, if the Govt and DFES reckons that was a huge sum to spend on aerial fire-fighting, and are reluctant to spend more.
This is the same mob who will happily spend $440M on a pet project such as Elizabeth Quay - of dubious benefit to the State - but they'd baulk at spending another $20M on major aerial fire-fighting ability - content instead to see fire losses run into the hundreds of millions.
Here's a gallery of the fire damage - and keep in mind, this is not the final tally.
Waroona/Yarloop fire damage - photo gallery