FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — Firefighters are relying more and more on aerial attacks to combat wildfires across Central California and the state, including the most recent “Boneyard Fire” along the Mariposa-Tuolumne County line.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom touted the addition of the two new S-70i Fire Hawks.
“The world’s largest civilian aerial firefighting fleet. There’s simply no jurisdiction in the world that has more assets, that bears more aerial assets than the State of California,” Gov. Newsom said.
Those assets now include…
“…getting these final two Fire Hawks, 16 total now in our possession,” Gov. Newsom said.
CAL FIRE currently has a dozen Fire Hawk helicopters in service, with two on reserve. With the addition of two more choppers, these crucial assets will now be able to fight fires from the air.
“It buys us a lot of time, especially with the fire engines and hand crews responding. These aerial assets are able to get overhead of the fire, start putting down retardant drops and water drops, and really cooling off to give our ground resources time to respond,” Zachary Irion with CAL FIRE said.
The additional Fire Hawks are a reality two decades in the making.
Since the 1980s, CAL FIRE has relied on the Bell Huey helicopters, described as the “workhorse” within the fleet for several years. But in 2003, CAL FIRE worked toward a more advanced generation of firefighting helicopters.
“It seems like fires are not what they used to be. Fire season really looks different now,” I asked.
“Yeah, fire season is something that we see all year-round, so that’s why it’s so important we have these extra tools in our toolbox,” Irion said.
CAL FIRE started building that toolbox in 2015, when it was able to purchase the first Fire Hawk in its fleet and increasing safety for Californians.
“With the addition of these helicopters, it really helps us meet the mission of keeping 95 percent of all wildfires at 10 acres or less,” Irion said.
CAL FIRE says those additional Fire Hawks are currently in Sacramento and will be used by the year’s end.
