Droughts and high temperatures combined in 2021 to cook up what have been some of the most severely intense wildfire years in the state’s history. Despite this, some of California’s emergency services agencies are using technology to declare war on the flames.
Just two of California’s 2021 fires have already torched away over 1 million acres of woodland in Northern California and even managed to nearly reach the shores of picturesque Lake Tahoe. Even 8000 exhausted firefighters working relentlessly couldn’t prevent the need for thousands of civilians to evacuate their homes in the affected regions.
The scale of these blazes and many, many others has left fire personnel nearly overwhelmed. Days off have been few and a marked shortage of aerial firefighting helicopters is happening for all the different hot spots throughout the state. This at least is what fire chiefs have started warning about during numerous public advisories and media interviews. As one of these fire chiefs even bluntly stated, “It’s a war”.
With all the smoky chaos, California’s firefighting and emergency organizations have started turning to ever more serious resources for relief, and it has started to result in some pricey, but possibly necessary purchases of high technology.
One of the most recent of these hardware upgrades to the regional firefighting power has been a new fleet of advanced and powerful firefighting helicopters. These are going to work at crushing fires 24 hours per day, day or night in three California counties. The project, funded to the tune of $18 million by Southern California Edison, also involves an agreement between Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, Through it, the three administrations mutually share four powerful new helicopters that are capable of night-flights against forest fires.
Orange and L.A. Counties will each host one of two Boeing CH-47D helicopters that have each been specially fitted with 3000-gallon tanks for dumping fire-retardant liquid. Ventura County is also hosting a Sikorsky S-61 chopper that can drop 1000 gallons at a time and rapidly move into position to do so.
Then, to top the effort off, Orange County is also keeping an S-76 model Sikorsky helicopter on standby for surveillance. This more compact machine won’t fight fires directly but it will provide high-tech surveillance that includes laser-powered firefighting coordination. All four machines are piloted and stored by staff from Coulson Aviation, the private contractor that is leasing them to the fire rescue agencies.
In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Orange County fire chief Brian Fennessy insisted that the fleet’s (and especially the Chinooks’) capacity to fight fires after dark will be a major game-changer in how forcefully the three counties can respond. Fires are known for commonly losing some of their ferocity at night due to weather and wind changes, so laying down retardants during these hours could deliver abnormal suppression.
One of the technological features of the Chinook helicopters for night firefighting is a GPS feature that lets the aerial fire response crews input a specific GPS coordinate for a burning zone. Once the helicopter flies over that precise set of coordinates, its tank doors automatically open and lay down the liquid without the need for visual coordination by a human pilot.
Aerial firefighting services are routinely and highly effectively supported by helicopters and pilots from professional private charter flight companies like Fair Lifts and others. The trained, professional staff of these organizations can provide an assortment of emergency rescue and disaster relief supplies.
Photo Credit: Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG