Factors influencing travel time and getaway time of helitack crews on wildfires in the province of Quebec

Background Reducing the delay between the detection of a fire and the arrival of the initial attack (IA) crew can have a significant impact on the likelihood of the IA’s success. Aims The objective of this study was to identify factors influencing same-day getaway time, next-day getaway time and travel time of helitack IA crews in the province of Quebec, Canada. Methods Using generalised linear modelling and model selection, we analysed the impact of multiple factors on these three distinct times. Key results Our results show that factors such as the distance between the departure base and the fire, the number of flight legs to reach a fire, dispatch hour, departure base location, the fire’s rate of spread, Julian date, the number of active fires, fuel type and the fire’s size at detection all influenced getaway time and travel time with varying degrees of influence. Conclusions The factors with the highest influence were distance for travel time and dispatch hour for both same-day and next-day getaway times. Implications Addressing these high-impact factors through the modification of deployment policies and the positioning of helitack crews could help reduce response times.