Guard C-130s Sought for Fire Duty : Legislation: Action by Congress is awaited on measures freeing the planes for immediate use. A 1932 law says private aircraft must be deployed first.

Nine months after federal red tape grounded two Air National Guard tankers during a rash of wildfires, two bills that would free the planes from such strictures are awaiting action in Congress.

The bills, authored by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) and Rep. David Dreier (R-Covina), seek to free the Guard’s giant C-130 Hercules military transports to respond immediately to fires.

Currently, the eight C-130s equipped for firefighting can be called out only after federal officials have exhausted a list of 40 private operators of air tankers--a requirement of a 1932 act aimed at preventing the military from competing with private enterprise.

Both bills would exempt firefighting efforts from the 1932 act and would also direct the U.S. Forest Service--which coordinates the tankers while fighting major brush fires--to consider establishing an early warning system. Such a system would allow the Guard to begin mobilizing against brush fires whenever the Santa Ana winds begin.

“It is critical for us to make these changes now, before we again find ourselves operating in crisis, hamstrung by flawed resources and bureaucratic inefficiency,” Gallegly said.

Likewise, Dreier, who represents portions of the San Gabriel Valley near the area burned by last year’s Altadena blaze, said the Guard’s tankers must be made to respond more quickly when fires get out of hand.

But federal wildfire managers say the existing system works. They said the bills would redefine the role of the Guard in wildfires and could damage military readiness to transport troops and equipment--tasks that are considered the Guard’s main job.

“This is just public relations firefighting,” said Woody Williams, national fire mobilization officer at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Ida. “The simple truth is that the Guard’s tankers are not designed to be initial attack aircraft and they’re not all that effective in high-wind situations.”

Williams explained that the government’s fleet of 40 contracted private air tankers have more modern and more efficient fire retardant distribution systems than the Guard’s planes, and that those systems operate better in high winds.

Bob Will, an air service manager for the U.S. Forest Service in Hemet, said the delay in getting the C-130s in the air last fall has been overblown.

“We look at the Guard as our ace in the hole,” Will said. “The truth is that during typical fire seasons they will be used two or three times a year--obviously more during situations like last year.”

But the two tankers that are based at Point Mugu, along with two Air Force Reserve C-130s based in Colorado, flew more than 40 missions recently battling forest fires in Idaho--dumping more than 110,000 gallons of chemical fire retardant, base officials said.

Gallegly and Dreier said they did not care about the concerns of fire officials in Idaho who oppose their legislation.

“The folks in Boise say there’s not a problem, but I’d like to see them explain that to the people whose homes were burned down last year,” Gallegly said.

Echoing Gallegly was Ventura County Assistant Fire Chief Bob Roper, who said his firefighters could have used the help while fighting the Green Meadow fire and other blazes.

“Some fires we had to let burn because I had no air tankers and ground units to dispatch,” Roper said. “We were throwing everything we had at this fire and it still wasn’t enough at times.”