Firefighting Copter Heads Wish List for O.C. Fire Chief

Orange County Fire Chief Larry Holms is looking to the skies for help during major fires.

The county’s top fire official said he would like his department to have its own firefighting helicopter, capable of pouring 500 gallons of water at a time. Such a whirlybird could help quickly attack blazes before they roar out of control, he said.

“We really need to have some sort of immediate response like ones you see in L.A. city and L.A. County to pick the fires up while they are small,” Holms said. “They work well in supporting fire crews on fire lines and in and around the houses.”

Holms, the county fire chief since 1980, said he wants to study the purchase of a helicopter--a possible $300,000 investment that could free the county Fire Department from asking other counties or agencies for help.

Currently, if the Fire Department needs a helicopter it calls local agencies such as the Sheriff’s Department to use their choppers. The sheriff’s helicopter can be rigged to haul a water bucket filled with about 350 gallons of water or fire retardant. Sheriff’s helicopter pilots dropped more than 15,000 gallons of water over the Laguna Beach fire, which Holms called “the worst fire disaster in Orange County history.”

But if agencies are swamped with other calls for help--which often happens when Santa Ana winds kick up across Southern California--county fire officials must turn to other counties or the state for help, said Dennis Shell, a Fire Department spokesman.

A helicopter is not a guarantee against devastation wrought by wind-whipped fires like the Laguna Beach blaze, but it would add to the department’s arsenal against the recent fires, Holms said. He conceded that because of the unpredictable nature of some fires, “It may not have helped.”

Such a major investment would have to clear the Board of Supervisors before becoming a reality.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said he would be “open-minded” to a helicopter proposal, but the $300,000 price tag is a major concern.

Steiner said he believed the Laguna Beach fire was hard to fight because of “weather conditions that were untenable,” not necessarily because of a lack of equipment.

Holms predicted that the recent spate of fires would prompt city and county officials to refocus on balancing the sometimes conflicting needs of protecting the environment and ensuring fire-safety needs in brush areas.