Aerial attack crucial to fighting Los Angeles fires

When the wildfires broke out on January 7 across Los Angeles County, the unprecedented force of the Santa Ana winds delayed the aerial firefighting response. Although winds reached 100 mph at their peak, the grounding left many members of the public, mostly nonpilots, wondering why the aerial responders couldn’t fly.

Cal Fire lead air tanker instructor and pilot Bradley Baker explained that much of the agency’s aerial firefighting decisions are made using the acronym SEE: Safe, Effective, and Efficient. If the situation is such that they can’t complete their mission to that standard, the pilot will terminate the mission, or “knock it off,” as they say.

“The first thing we do is determine whether or not it's safe,” Baker said. “So, we’re looking at the smoke and the conditions and just maybe talking to a helicopter that’s low-level. If it's safe, we'll go do it. The second thing would be, is it effective. If we make a couple of drops and we use two or three wingspans of drift correction and it's still not working, then we’re not really being effective, so then we’ll call, knock it off. And then, are we able to get the mission done in an efficient manner, and typically that doesn’t really come into play, but sometimes it does and if we’re not being efficient, we knock it off.

“We’ll always go out and typically see what the conditions are like, because forecasted and actual are always different,” Baker continued. “It’s really up to the pilot [in] command. If we receive a drop instruction from the Air Attack we’ll go somewhat low-level first and feel it out and then if we can complete the drop, we'll go through with it. If one pilot goes down and does a drop-run, low-level and it is determined to be unsafe for that pilot, the entire mission will usually be called ‘knock off.’ But as far as external pressures, there’s generally nothing like that.”

Cal Fire works with several cooperating organizations, and manages the largest civil aerial firefighting fleet in the world, with more than 60 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Although Cal Fire has more than 14 air tanker bases and 10 helicopter bases, airports throughout Los Angeles and Ventura County played a pivotal role in keeping firefighting response and turnaround times to a minimum.

Camarillo Airport and Oxnard Airport both saw an influx of firefighting aircraft.

“When the Palisades Fire broke out, it was the third time in 60 days that Camarillo and Oxnard airports have been utilized as support for regional firefighting efforts,” said Jannette Jauregui, Ventura County Department of Airports communications and engagement manager. “As we face the largest and most destructive fires in Los Angeles County’s history, Camarillo and Oxnard airports have again served as an invaluable resource welcoming firefighting aircraft from throughout the region including Utah and Arizona. The wind events this week and last are unprecedented and fire crews were unable to fly in the hours after the Palisades Fire first broke out. Still, both airports immediately became a hub for firefighting operations for all fires in the Los Angeles area and, once it became safe enough to fly, crews were in the air and over the fires within minutes. To say that regional airports play a critical role in these events is an understatement. I am not sure there are words to fully describe the difference these airports make in providing lifesaving services for their communities when residents need them most.”

Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles also served as a firefighting base. James Miller, commander of the local Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron, told The San Fernando Valley Sun that Cal Fire helicopters fought the Hurst Fire beginning on January 8. The fire was close to Whiteman, and other aircraft were fighting the Palisades Fire out of Van Nuys Airport and Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, and those facilities could not accommodate additional aircraft.

Miller said firefighting aircraft from Whiteman were able to stop the Hurst Fire with 800 acres burned, before it expanded into another major conflagration.

“It was initially growing as fast as the Palisades Fire, and where it was located actually made it a threat to the whole northern end of the valley,” Miller told the local newspaper. “With the winds we had … the potential for it to blow into the Lake View Terrace and Pacoima areas was great and we could have had a third disastrous fire on our hands.”

The winds eased on January 15, allowing firefighters to gain ground, but were forecast to pick up again the following week, the Associated Press reported.

Digital Media Managing Editor Jim Moore contributed to this report.