Red Tape Delayed Air Guard Tankers : Mobilization: As fires raged, two super firefighting planes were grounded 24 hours awaiting U.S. authorization and solutions to logistic problems.

As wildfires ravaged Southern California, two super National Guard firefighting planes--capable of dumping thousands of gallons of chemical retardant on blazes within seconds--remained grounded because of government red tape, confusion and a shortage of personnel.

Col. Anthony C. Volante, deputy commander of the Channel Islands Air National Guard Base in Ventura County, said his 146th Airlift Wing had received prompt authorization from Gov. Pete Wilson to use military air tankers, but the federal government delayed authorization. “We were all ready,” Volante said. “We had the planes ready to go and crews ready at 8:30 yesterday (Wednesday) morning waiting for the authorization.”

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But the authorization did not come until late that afternoon and Volante was unable to get the planes in the air until Thursday morning.

In the meantime, firefighters battling the Thousand Oaks-Malibu fire on Wednesday said they could have used the help from the National Guard planes.

“Yesterday,” said Alan Campbell, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department, “the way the fire was acting, we could have used a lot more air drop because the conditions were right for it. Today, it’s much harder to hit the target, with the updrafts and downdrafts and the fact that the fire is moving much faster.”

On Wednesday, all other tanker planes in California were being pressed into the war against 13 major fires that swept through the Southland. There were 29 planes dumping water and fire retardant whenever and wherever smoke and wind conditions permitted, according to the California Department of Forestry.

But the National Guard planes remained on the ground--a result of several frustrating factors.

First, a federal law dating back 61 years prohibits the use of military planes to fight fires until all government contracts are honored with private aircraft operators who provide such services, U.S. Forest Service officials said.

The Economy Act of 1932 says the “federal government will not be in competition with private industry,” said Charles McDonald, U.S. Forest Service coordinator with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System.

The modular system equipment--special tanks and a chemical mix--allows the National Guard C130 Hercules turbo props to spray 3,000 gallons of fire retardant on blazes within six seconds.

But before that equipment can be used, the U.S. Forest Service needs clearance from an operations center in Riverside that it runs in conjunction with the California Department of Forestry, McDonald said.

And that, said U.S. Forest Service officials, is not simple.

“If they (operations center officials) make the determination that they do not have any further (commercial) aircraft available in this area,” McDonald said, “they will request additional aircraft from our National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Ida.”

Then, he said, the Boise officials “will look nationwide as to availability of additional aircraft to be moved into Southern California.

“If there are outstanding requests for aircraft that cannot be filled from the commercial or private industry, we will then request assistance from the military.”

That request did not go in until about 4 p.m. Wednesday, seven hours after the National Guard planes were ready.

An official in Boise said the delay was unnecessary. He said clearance by his agency was not needed and the National Guard planes could have taken off with Wilson’s permission alone.

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“As soon as the governor gives the order,” said Skip Scott, spokesman for the federal agency, “the air tankers are free to take to the air. The search for civilian air tankers is in no way an impediment to the use of the (military) units.”

Be that as it may, there were other obstacles.

The U.S. Forest Service needed to provide a lead plane to guide the tankers into the fire areas, and this was no easy task under the circumstances.

“As you can imagine, with 13 fires going at once,” said Dennis Orrick, state forestry liaison officer, “to get a lead plane . . . was very complicated.”

A lead plane was finally found, but the problems did not end there.

The Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System requires trained personnel to mix the chemicals and load the tanks onto the planes. The U.S. Forest Service had to bring in such experts from Santa Barbara and as far away as Redding in Northern California.

By 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, the planes were ready to fly, but the National Guard does not make such flights at night.

The planes were finally able to join the war on the Southland fires Thursday morning.

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Times correspondents Matthew Mosk and J.E. Mitchell contributed to this article.