Fighting Wildfires From the Sky

Plotting a brush fire defense much like the military plots a war, the Los Angeles County Fire Department has assembled an arsenal of firefighting aircraft.

Standing by for duty are four leased “initial attack aircraft,” as the department puts it, plus a fifth water tanker shared with the National Forest Service.

New this year is a Sikorsky Firehawk helicopter, a civilian version of the military Black Hawk, which the county is testing as a possible replacement in its own fleet of smaller, water-dropping helicopters.

The UH-60L Firehawk, while hovering over a water source, can siphon up to 1,000 gallons in seconds. The department’s standard helicopters have a capacity of only 360 gallons, and must land to reload. The Firehawk also may be converted to transport more firefighters, emergency workers and victims than the department’s fleet of helicopters, officials said.

That air power is designed to avert a repeat of devastating firestorms in the region, like those in 1993 that raged from Newhall to the sea.

Faced with what many fear could be one of the worst fire seasons in recent history during the next several months because of heavy hillside brush fueled by El Nino, county supervisors in August approved a $3.2-million budget for aerial wildfire assaults.

“The combination of increased air attack, improved pre-planning in high-risk areas and the brush-clearance program has proven successful in terms of life and property protection,” wrote County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman in an August memo to supervisors.

Other fire departments--locally and nationally--are expected to closely monitor the county’s war against fires this season, evaluating the performance of each of the aircraft to determine which they might recruit for their own firefighting.

That attention has prompted lobbying and public relations campaigns by aircraft manufacturers and contractors. The official debut of the local air arsenal is expected Thursday, although details have not yet been disclosed.

All of the leased aircraft, except the Firehawk, are based at Van Nuys Airport, including crews and support personnel. The Firehawk is based with other county fire helicopters next to Whiteman Airport in Pacoima.

The cost of leasing the Firehawk for about the next three months is $600,000, officials said.

Other equipment includes two SuperScoopers--planes that swoop down to a lake, reservoir or the ocean to scoop 1,620 gallons of water each time.

The county allocated $1.5 million to the final year of a five-year agreement with the manufacturer, Bombardier Aerospace of Canada, and the government of Quebec, whose fire season differs from Southern California.

Bombardier representatives promote the SuperScooper as “the world’s most technologically advanced firefighting aircraft.” They point to the last four years of their use by the county as having “demonstrated their ability to combat wildfires in the urban interface areas of Southern California.”

Bombardier’s promotion includes comments from Alan Kishbaugh, chairman of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., who endorses the SuperScoopers as “old friends” and urges they be “a permanent part of our firefighting arsenal throughout California.”

After a bidding war between two companies, the county in August signed a $690,000 contract for the exclusive lease of an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter, which can deliver 30,000 gallons of water or retardant per hour and refill its 2,000-gallon tank in 45 seconds, Erickson company officials said.

County fire officials originally recommended selection of another firm, Heavy Lift Helicopters of Apple Valley, which uses aircraft similar to the Air-Crane but which are manufactured for military use and offered at a lower price.

The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits use of the converted military aircraft for civilian use over populated areas such as Los Angeles, but aircraft used for public service are exempt from the ban.

Erickson bitterly fought Heavy Lift’s proposal, saying the converted military aircraft are unsafe because of a dwindling supply of military replacement parts. The company recruited homeowner representatives to pressure supervisors to hire Erickson.

The bidding war ended July 18 when a Heavy Lift helitanker, returning from a firefighting mission, crashed in Yucca Valley in San Bernardino County, killing all three crew members.

A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board cited a possible faulty rotary blade.

A similar helitanker owned by Heavy Lift is now based at Van Nuys on a shared-lease basis between the county and the U.S. Forest Service. The county’s share of that agreement is a maximum of $200,000 this year.