Letters : Using Guard Aircraft to Fight Fires

At last the feds have seen the light and have devised some reasonable procedures to permit the use of Air National Guard C-130 aircraft to fight brush fires in our hills and canyons.

For years, we in local government have fumed in frustration as our hillsides burn while the federally controlled aircraft, equipped with special firefighting equipment, remain on the ground at Van Nuys Airport.

Time after time we were told that federal regulations did not permit deployment of the C-130s until a time-consuming, cumbersome procedure, designed to give privately owned firms the first crack at fighting fires, was followed. That procedure meant a delay of 24 hours or more before the C-130s could take to the air--and during that time homes and lives were lost.

Back in 1979, I introduced a motion, which the Los Angeles City Council adopted, urging the federal government to permit the immediate use of all available aircraft during fire emergencies. I testified at Congressional hearings on the issue and, with strong support from former Congressman Barry Goldwater, made every effort to change the unreasonable and illogical policy. However, we were unable to make the Forest Service budge from its position.

After last summer’s conflagrations which destroyed homes in the San Diego and Baldwin Hills areas, State Assembly members Larry Stirling and Gwen Moore also demanded that the rules be changed to permit the use of the National Guard planes.

Finally, federal and state officials got together, eliminated the red tape and made it possible for the military air tankers to be activated within minutes of a phone call from the governor. The new system was used for the first time during the recent fires in the Santa Monica Mountains, and over 30 missions were flown to drop water and fire retardant chemicals on the blaze.

All of us feel relieved that now the available aircraft will be used to fight fires and will not be left sitting uselessly at the airport. But the question must be raised: why did it take so long for the federal bureaucracy to see the light and how many homes might have been saved had the red tape been cut earlier?

JOY PICUS

City Councilwoman, 3rd District