Cal Fire's New Fire Hawk Helicopter Crucial In Nighttime Operation In Electra Fire
AMADOR COUNTY (CBS13) — A night-time operation with a new tool and technology marks a first on the front lines of the Electra Fire.
Overnight, Cal Fire's Fire Hawk helicopter was brought in for an air attack to help firefighters gain ground before temperatures heat up.
Before any night operation gets the green light, pilots have to be able to see the terrain they're working in before the sun goes down. If they can, the mission is a go.
It's a resource that helps crews better map out trouble spots and keeps fires from raging out of control.
This upgrade to Cal Fire's air fleet is influencing how fast crews contain the Electra Fire.
"Now that the Fire Hawk's on board, it just reflects an improvement in our capabilities when it comes to helicopters," Cal Fire Battalion Chief Isaac Sanchez said. "Based off of last night, it improves our ability to fight fires at night."
The Firehawk is a new generation aircraft that's replacing Cal Fire's aging fleet of Super Huey helicopters. Officials say its cutting-edge technology that's a game-changer.
"Just being able to spot those problem areas using those night-vision goggles is a massive increase in capabilities," Sanchez said.
The helicopter can drop a thousand gallons of water in 2-3 seconds. That's more than double what the old Hueys could handle.
In the Electra Fire, 12,000 gallons of water were dropped in fewer than 3 hours, which allowed crews to gain valuable ground.
"It was requested to come in a little before 10 o'clock to knock down some hot spots," Sanchez said. "It picked up some additional slop over parts of the fire that got over the containment line."
With the ability to deliver up to 9 people for ground firefighting operations, this night flying mission is part of a changing strategy for preventing wildfires from ravaging communities.
"This is another tool to add to our toolbox to increase our capabilities and continue to take the firefight to the fire in an aggressive manner, regardless of the time of day," Sanchez said.
The Firehawk is based at Cal Fire's Tehama-Glenn unit in Red Bluff and it's one of only 12 that's been approved for night flying missions, so far.
As for a price tag, we asked Cal Fire, but they weren't able to give us that figure by the time of this story.
