CAL FIRE increases fleet of firefighting helicopters

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Firefighters are relying much and much connected aerial attacks to combat wildfires crossed Central California and the state, including the astir caller "Boneyard Fire" on the Mariposa-Tuolumne County line.

On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom touted the summation of the 2 caller S-70i Fire Hawks.

"The world's largest civilian aerial firefighting fleet. There's simply nary jurisdiction successful the satellite that has much assets; that bears much aerial assets than the State of California," Gov. Newsom said.

Those assets present include...

"...getting these last 2 Fire Hawks, 16 full present successful our possession," Gov. Newsom said.

CAL FIRE presently has a twelve Fire Hawk helicopters successful service, with 2 connected reserve, and present with the 2 added choppers, important assets successful firefighting fires from the air.

"It buys america a batch of time, particularly with the occurrence engines and manus crews responding truthful these aerial assets are capable to get overhead of the occurrence and commencement putting down retardant drops and h2o drops and truly cooling disconnected to springiness our crushed resources clip to respond," Zachary Irion with CAL FIRE said.

The further Fire Hawks are a world 2 decades successful the making.

Since the 1980s, CAL FIRE has relied connected the Bell Huey helicopters, described arsenic the "workhorse" wrong the fleet for respective years, but successful 2003, CAL FIRE worked toward a much precocious procreation of firefighting helicopters.

The Fire Hawk is capable to transportation a larger unit size, much fuel, with enhanced night-flying capabilities, and an accrued h2o dropping capableness holding up to 1 1000 gallons of h2o successful the chopper's belly vessel underneath.

"It seems similar fires are not what they utilized to be. Fire play truly looks antithetic now," I asked.

"Yeah, occurrence play is thing that we spot each year-round, truthful that's wherefore it's truthful important we person these other tools successful our toolbox," Irion said.

CAL FIRE started gathering that toolbox successful 2015, erstwhile it was capable to acquisition the archetypal Fire Hawk successful its fleet and expanding information for Californians.

"With the summation of these helicopters, it truly helps america conscionable the ngo of keeping 95 percent of each wildfires astatine 10 acres oregon less," Irion said.

CAL FIRE says those further Fire Hawks are presently successful Sacramento and volition beryllium utilized by the year's end.

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