Narrative:

I was working the sjc final this morning when a new tfr for [a] fire near went into effect. The tfr was so unnecessarily large it made it impossible to have aircraft arrive into sjc. The decision was made by my supervisor that until we see aircraft in the tfr we would run operations as normal. I cleared a dozen aircraft through the tfr and when the fire fighting aircraft arrived it was necessary to place the last few through the tfr. After our complaints were heard the tfr was redrawn to something more manageable. The entire process took too long.does anyone from air traffic actually look at the tfr dimensions to see what and where they are with potential impacts to safety? Why does it take so long to get something redrawn? Why do fire tfrs remain at night when there are no firefighting aircraft allowed to fly? I recommend a review of this event and that it get addressed by our local safety committee. This is not the first time a tfr has been larger than was necessary with impacts to the operation. I also recommend someone from nct be allowed to review and approve or deny a tfr. It's my understanding tfrs are generated outside of our building and we are told what and where they will be. Local input is very important and should be part of the decision making process.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: NCT TRACON Controller reported of problems with the size of a fire fighting TFR.

Narrative: I was working the SJC final this morning when a new TFR for [a] fire near went into effect. The TFR was so unnecessarily large it made it impossible to have aircraft arrive into SJC. The decision was made by my supervisor that until we see aircraft in the TFR we would run operations as normal. I cleared a dozen aircraft through the TFR and when the fire fighting aircraft arrived it was necessary to place the last few through the TFR. After our complaints were heard the TFR was redrawn to something more manageable. The entire process took too long.Does anyone from air traffic actually look at the TFR dimensions to see what and where they are with potential impacts to safety? Why does it take so long to get something redrawn? Why do fire TFRs remain at night when there are no firefighting aircraft allowed to fly? I recommend a review of this event and that it get addressed by our Local Safety Committee. This is not the first time a TFR has been larger than was necessary with impacts to the operation. I also recommend someone from NCT be allowed to review and approve or deny a TFR. It's my understanding TFRs are generated outside of our building and we are told what and where they will be. Local input is very important and should be part of the decision making process.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.