County Leases Canadian Firefighting Plane : Safety: ‘Super scooper’ can dump seven tons of water on blazes, then refill from ocean or lakes. Agreement covers three months.

Los Angeles County on Tuesday became the first California jurisdiction to acquire a long-coveted Canadian tanker plane that fights brush fires by bombing them with up to seven tons of water scooped on the fly from lakes or the ocean.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to lease the Canadair CL-215T, or “super scooper,” from the Quebec government for a maximum of three months, beginning in early October. Leasing the plane, including the services of two Canadian flight crews and a mechanic, will cost up to $719,000, plus $515 for every hour it is in the air.

Costly as leasing the plane may appear, the expense pales in comparison to the $1 billion in damage Southern California sustained in last autumn’s devastating fires, said County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman. Twenty-six fires struck six Southern California counties last fall, including the Calabasas-Malibu fire, which killed three people.

Freeman said the plane could prove invaluable in improving the chances of quickly controlling or dousing a fire because, unlike other tanker planes and retardant-dropping helicopters which must be loaded by ground crews, the super scooper can swoop down on a body of water and take on 1,400 gallons in less than 12 seconds, simply scooping it up as the plane roars along the surface.

The county Fire Department will tap its $5-million contingency fund to pay for the plane.

“The super scooper is not a panacea, but it will help us make a heavy, decisive hit from the air during the crucial initial stages of a fire,” Freeman said.

Based at Van Nuys Airport, the plane will be used throughout the county, not just in the unincorporated areas that are the responsibility of county firefighters. The city of Los Angeles has tentatively agreed to allow the county to store the plane for free and let the crew use a vacant fire station at the old Air National Guard base in the northwest corner of Van Nuys Airport, Freeman said.

In the past, officials had rejected the super scooper for several reasons, including its purchase price--$16.5 million--and the fact that it cannot fly at night or in extremely gusty winds and cannot get refills from the ocean in choppy seas.

Local homeowner groups whose longstanding campaign to acquire the plane had received a boost from last year’s devastating fires praised the lease agreement Tuesday.

“We need this tool in our toolbox,” said Alan Kishbaugh, president of the Los Angeles Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, which represents 55 homeowner groups between Westlake Village and Mt. Washington. “It might even lead to lower (fire) insurance premiums.”

The performance of the 65-foot-long plane will be evaluated by county fire officials, who will report the results to the board.

“I believe it is going to prove essential to protect life and property,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who, with Supervisor Ed Edelman, co-sponsored the motion to bring the plane to the county.

If the plane indeed proves useful, the county would explore forming a joint powers agency with other local governments, the state and the federal government to purchase one, Antonovich said.

Just last week, the state also moved to lease and test the super scooper. Reversing a position he took two years ago when he vetoed a similar program, Gov. Pete Wilson signed into law a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Brentwood) allowing the leasing and testing of two super scoopers.

The program, scheduled to begin next spring, would be administered by the state Department of Forestry, which would have the final say over where the airplanes would be deployed. But the state did not appropriate any funds for the program, and legislators are still seeking at least $1.8 million in funding from the federal government.