ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Quick Use for a Tool Against Fire

The Orange County Board of Supervisors leased a special firefighting helicopter last week. Within days, it proved its worth.

When fire broke out near San Juan Capistrano, burning within 150 feet of one tract of homes, Orange County Fire Department officials pressed the chopper into service. Because training had barely begun, some problems in coordinating the aircraft’s movements with ground crews were reported. But the on-the-job training generally worked and provided essential experience for future fires.

After the devastating Laguna Beach blazes last year, there was never a question about the usefulness of a chopper that can fill a 360-gallon tank with water from lakes or reservoirs in 90 seconds, dump it on the flames and quickly fill up again. The question was where to find the money.

The supervisors’ task became easier when the Fire Department’s commendable belt-tightening saved more than $1 million in budgeted but unspent funds, money that paid for the one-year lease of the helicopter.

County Fire Chief Larry J. Holms said after the Laguna Beach devastation, in which more than 400 homes were destroyed or damaged and $500 million worth of damage was done, that helicopters were no longer a luxury but a necessity. The aircraft can be invaluable in stopping a fire before it spreads. The county did get help with firefighting aircraft from other jurisdictions, but the response was delayed because planes and helicopters were being used to fight other blazes when Orange County erupted in flames.

Holms also had a pointed message worth heeding. He said residents living in areas prone to fires, filled with wood-frame houses surrounded by brush, must take steps to protect themselves, including clearing the brush. That is the law, but compliance too often has been haphazard.

The county declared more than 165,000 acres off-limits to the public last month because of the danger of fire. The helicopter gives the Fire Department another weapon in its arsenal, but it needs help from the public as well.