Leases for SuperScoopers Extended

Although the county’s two SuperScooper aircraft failed to contain last week’s Calabasas-Malibu fire, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday extended the county’s leases on the planes through the end of the fire season.

“The SuperScooper is not a panacea,” County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman told the board. “Its performance has been good in some situations, and bad in others. But it is too early to draw conclusions.”

Freeman told the supervisors that fire officials had depended upon the water-dropping SuperScoopers to help keep the wind-whipped fire from spreading outside the Calabasas area.

The planes failed, however, and the fire burned about 14,000 acres from the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean.

Freeman said the critical problem with the SuperScooper is that the plane is not effective in fighting blazes in rugged areas during high winds because the pilots can not maneuver close enough to canyon walls without risking crashing.

But for the moment, Freeman said, the Fire Department lacks anything better.

“The SuperScooper has worked well in cases in which it was [capable of doing the job], and in the cases in which it can’t [do the job], there’s still nothing better,” Freeman said.

“So are we better off having them than not having them?” asked Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the west county areas where the Calabasas-Malibu fire burned.

The fire destroyed six homes and four trailers, injured six firefighters and cost $9 million to contain.

“Yes, we need virtually every type of tool,” Freeman responded.

The board unanimously voted to extend the lease through Dec. 14--an additional 38 days.

The county’s five-year lease agreement for the planes with the province of Quebec costs about $1.5 million annually. The planes are stationed in the county during the peak of the fire season when Santa Ana winds kick up from October to the beginning of December.

This year, however, county fire officials requested that the planes be brought in to help fight a September blaze in the Santa Clarita Valley.

That action required Tuesday’s board vote to extend this year’s lease.

One area in which the SuperScooper did do well, Freeman said, was in Corral Canyon, where the planes successfully saved a trailer home from burning.

Freeman said the planes were also effective in fighting Sunday’s Westlake Village blaze, which was held to five acres.