L.A. County Fire Department Says Fire Service Should Fly at Night
November 23, 2009 – A report by a Los Angeles County Fire Department suggests that allowing the U.S. Forest Service to fly their fire-fighting helicopters at night could help prevent future wildfires from becoming as large or destructive as the Station Fire. Had the tactic been used during the first hours of this deadly fire, it might have been contained more quickly; the fire eventually spread over 250 square miles, engulfing 89 homes and killing two firefighters.
This county review, which was sent to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, follows a report by the U.S. Forest Service on the Station Fire (the largest in Los Angeles County History) that concluded the dense brush of the San Gabriel Mountains combined with the inaccessibility of the terrain were the main contributors to the fire spreading out of control.
The fire department’s review points to what the call a “critical time period” between the initial dispatch of firefighters on August 26 and 8 A.M. on the morning of August 27 when the firefighting helicopters were dispatched, during which those helicopters were inactive. The county pilots are experienced in flying at night, and the review suggests their services would have been highly valuable in controlling the spread of the fire during that early period.
The report claims the helicopters were not used because U.S. Forest Service policy prohibits night flying. The Forest Service responded, rebutting the department’s claims and pointing out that L.A. County did not raise this issue during the review of the fire, which concluded that the Forest Service “acted prudently.” A spokesperson for the USFS also added that night flying is not normally used because of safety concerns, but that USFS policy does not forbid it.
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