Cal Fire said it’s added 24 aircraft to its statewide fleet to fight wildfires.
The agency said in a statement that, with more than $72 million in funding provided by the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Cal Fire is adding 19 helicopters and 5 airplanes for a contractual period of 90-120 days.
The additional fixed-wing aircraft includes three large airtankers specifically designed to carry up to 4,000 gallons of retardant. The aircraft have been strategically located in communities across California and will be pre-positioned to meet the needs of potential fire activity throughout the state.
“The deployment of more aircraft dedicated to the people of California marks a historic milestone, with the highest number of firefighting aircraft ever available for initial attack in the state for the second consecutive year,” stated Cal Fire Director and Fire Chief Joe Tyler, in the statement.
Tyler said “the significant rainfall California experienced this winter has led to a substantial increase of highly flammable fuels, which contribute to the rapid escalation of fires.”
As summer temperatures increased last week, Cal Fire responded to more than 300 wildfires. The aircraft have been positioned in Butte, Tuolumne, San Diego, Tulare, Humboldt, Mariposa, Nevada, Siskiyou, Sacramento, Fresno, Shasta, San Luis Obispo, Napa, Placer, Lassen, Riverside, and Sonoma Counties.
Cal Fire now has more than 60 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, making it the largest civil aerial firefighting fleet worldwide, the agency said.
12 comments
I am amazed at the skill of the Helicopter and Plane Pilots.
Don’t want to wait for information, a few URLs worth bookmarking.
https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents
https://alertca.live/cam-console/2054 webcams updated, new URL
https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/fire-protection/aviation-program cal fire air assets
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.73266,-120.91553&z=7&b=mbt&a=fire set to fire history
https://www.flightradar24.com/37.92,-121.94/11 (set to Claycord) Track fire fighting aircraft
https://tinyurl.com/yc7zxx4v GOES-West satelite west coast view
https://www.youtube.com/@blancolirio/videos blancolirio channel, good resource for info on big fires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gELVzAvZBqY CalFire S2-T Airtanker Pilot interview
Hope this helps
Read this report: https://www.valuepenguin.com/homeowners-insurance/wildfire-statistics
Compared to the amount of damage being done by fires the state is cheaping out on the ability to put out fires. You can also see that California is having a lot more fires that other states. California needs to double what they just spent. Helicopters are useless on a large fire. They are good for small roadside fires. That leaves just five new airplanes that only carry four thousand gallons of retardant. A 747 carries twice that amount and they are surplus. They are spending 72 million more when the damage by fires is in the billions.
Virtually nothing you posted is correct. Nothing
Pick one thing Frank? If you can.
Just read a story this morning that the city of San Diego is spending over eighty million on the homeless problem.
In other words:
The State has entered into contracts with private companies with a total of 24 aircraft to provide fire fighting services for the next 90 to 120 days.
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The aircraft are not state-owned
How about we purchase herds of sheep? Let the sheep eat away all year long.
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Ah…. You must mean hillsides full of Democrats and liberal voters clearing potential fire fuel.
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🙂
FPN : Uwe might say A flock of sheep, a herd of goats
I remember that a few years ago Newscum got rid of all the big 747s. The ones needed for large fires.
There was a private 747 but the owner converted it to cargo. He may have not been getting enough calls. There is problem between the forest service and Cal Fire in airplane use. I remember a case where one service waited three days to call for aircraft from the other service.
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