The state of California encompasses almost 40 million people and covers over 420,000km² of every type of terrain found on Earth except for tropical rainforest. If it was a country, it would have the fifth largest economy in the world. Climate change has been hitting the state hard with many years of drought and few years of plentiful rainfall. With a population expanding into the urban wildland interface, the threat to the state from wildfires has only grown. While the states to the north, Oregon and Washington, are facing similar threats, they don’t have the economic resources found at the local and state level in California.

The counties of southern California have long been innovators in aerial firefighting. Dedicated fire department helicopter units began as far back as 1957. Today, a large fleet of helicopters operated by the counties work together to fight wildland fires that too often take homes and lives.

But even these helicopters are sometimes not enough to control fires while they are still small. Southern California Edison (SCE) is a power utility company with operations in 15 southern California counties. During high wind events, which occur frequently in southern California, downed power lines are often the cause of wildfires. SCE approached the Chief of the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), Brian Fennessy, to see about helping to reduce damage from wildfires.

“We entered into discussions with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Ventura County Fire Department to create a task force of helicopters that could be used in any of counties in which SCE operated,” recalled Fennessy. “SCE approved a budget that would support three ex-military Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopters and a Sikorsky S-76 command and control ship for six-month contracts. Coulson Aviation was contracted to provide the aircraft and crews. It is called the Quick Reaction Force (QRF).”

It is now a year-round contract that supports the four helicopters and a mobile fire retardant base that can quickly be set up for dropping retardant as well as water. One CH-47 is based in the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, and Orange. Each CH-47 is equipped with a 3,000gal (11,000L) internal tank. The QRF can operate day or night.

“The contract is costing SCE close to US$36 million, which pays for the daily availability for the helicopters and all the personnel, 24/7/365,“ explained Fennessy. “Once the helicopters are on a fire, the jurisdiction within which the fire is located pays the hourly flight rate for the aircraft. We have extensive data that shows the QRF has made a difference in homes saved. This includes dropping fire retardant at night, which no one else in the world has done. The mobile retardant plant can be set up close to the fire and the helicopters use their snorkels to fill retardant. This leads to very quick turnaround times. We see this as the future of aerial firefighting throughout the western USA.”

Called Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence system (FIRIS), the program will predict where the fire is going in 30-minute increments based on ground- and space-based sensors that depict fuel and air temperatures, wind speed and direction, fuel and air moisture

FIRIS: real-time fire modeling

While the Fire Chief for the city of San Diego, Fennessy became aware of the video download capability of military drone aircraft and believed there might be an application for gathering intelligence on wildland fires. Fennessy became the Chief of OCFA in 2018. He began to lobby the state legislature and was able to secure $4 million for a pilot program in southern California.

“We put the program out to bid for the aircraft and equipment,” said Fennessy. “We also began to work with the University of California San Diego’s real-time fire modeling program using a super computer. The idea was for the program to answer three questions – Where is the fire? How big is the fire? Where is the fire going? – and answer these questions in real time. Called Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence system (FIRIS), the program will predict where the fire is going in 30-minute increments based on ground- and space-based sensors that depict fuel and air temperatures, wind speed and direction, fuel and air moisture. No other fire surveillance program has this predictive element. We used a WhatsApp chat page to push the information out to users. Ultimately, thousands of people had access to this information, including firefighters on the front line of the fire. Cal OES [the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services] is now funding the program year round with two aircraft, one in northern California and one in southern California.”

CAL FIRE, the state firefighting organization for California, operates the largest fleet of aerial firefighting aircraft and helicopters in the world. The goal is to keep 90% of wildland fires below 10 acres in size.

“CAL FIRE has aerial firefighting bases, for both fixed-wing and helicopters, spread throughout the state to protect State Responsibility Areas (SRA),” explained Chris Jurasek, a Division Chief of Tactical Air Operations for CAL FIRE. “They are situated so that aerial assets can be on-scene of any fire in an SRA within 20 minutes. We use a multifaceted response with smaller bases using the 1,200gal (4,500L) retardant S-2 airtankers and helicopters, and larger bases that can accommodate large and very large airtankers. While the locations of the bases have not changed, we can move our aircraft around the state in anticipation of increased fire risk depending on wind and weather patterns.

We can move our aircraft around the state in anticipation of increased fire risk depending on wind and weather patterns.

“In addition, we have a very close working relationship with the US Forest Service (USFS),” continued Jurasek. “We operate seamlessly on a day-to-day basis. We train together every year on recurrency training for helicopter managers and air tactics group supervisors. We also hold an annual aerial supervision academy to train new air tactics group supervisors with CAL FIRE and USFS students and instructors. We are also working closely with the USFS on developing and implementing uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) programs. This close relationship makes for safe, efficient operations on fires where all aircrews are trained to the same standard procedures and often are personally known to each other. We also use each other’s airtanker bases for refueling and reloading retardant so we can use the closest base to the fire regardless of who operates it, for a quicker turnaround.”

Guidelines for safe operation

CAL FIRE developed Fire Traffic Area (FTA) procedures with the USFS initially for operations over fires in California. These procedures set guidelines for the safe operation of any aircraft entering and leaving the airspace over a fire, airspeeds, as well as setting vertical and horizontal spacing of aircraft over a fire. The procedures are now standard everywhere in the USA and are also being adopted globally by other countries. Several foreign governments have expressed interest in the FTA system, such as Greece, Australia, Chile, and some Canadian provinces. 

We are beginning to use more and more simulators to train helicopter and airtanker crews

CAL FIRE has ordered a total of 16 Lockheed S-70i Firehawks to replace its Bell UH-1H Hueys. This will give them extra helicopters that could be sent to other parts of the state during severe fire weather events. California is so large that one area might be experiencing low fire danger levels while another might be having high or extreme danger levels. Assets in the low-danger area can be sent to the higher-danger-level areas to strengthen the initial attack response. CAL FIRE is also in the process of acquiring seven ex-US Coast Guard Lockheed C-130H aircraft that will be converted to airtankers using the Coulson RADS 4,000gal internal retardant tank. These will be assigned to the larger airtanker bases around the state that can accommodate C-130 operations. They will be used as an initial attack resource and can be moved around the state depending on the day-to-day fire danger level.

“We are beginning to use more and more simulators to train helicopter and airtanker crews,” commented Jurasek. “We currently have one S-70i simulator and are acquiring another one. We will also be receiving a helicopter hoist rescue virtual reality simulator. We have also just taken delivery of flight training simulators for an OV-10 air attack, an S-2 tanker, and a C-130 aircraft. While these are not full motion, they have the ability to simulate fire ground activity and work together. These will decrease training costs as well as wear and tear on the actual aircraft.”

Use of UAS versus helicopters

The USFS is developing the use of UAS for two main functions, gathering intelligence on a fire and aerial ignition.

“The aim of the UAS aerial ignition program is to reduce the dependence on helicopters for aerial ignition for both prescribed burns and wildland fires,” explained Kelly Boyd, USFS Aerial Ignition Specialist. “Aerial ignition involves dropping golf ball-sized spheres that are injected with a material that self-ignites after a short period of time. They are used to start fires to burn off vegetation in a very specific pattern. This is done in prescribed burns to safely eliminate fuel from areas in case of future wildland fires. On an actual wildfire, it is used to deprive the main fire of fuel in front of its advance to slow it down and reduce the intensity of the burning.”

The goal to reduce the use of helicopters is being pursued for two reasons. The helicopter must fly low and slow in order to drop the spheres. This puts them in a very dangerous position if they lose power. In addition, it is much cheaper to use a UAS than a helicopter.

The USFS is currently using a UAS called the Alta X by Freefly of Seattle, Washington. A payload system that can hold about 400 spheres is attached to it. Using an onboard GPS, an app is used to control the dropping of the balls. The drop rate can be varied by the operator.

We are educating ground firefighters on the capabilities of the system to get them to use it more on actual wildland fires

“We are educating ground firefighters on the capabilities of the system to get them to use it more on actual wildland fires,” stated Boyd. “It is very useful in steep, rocky terrain where it would be difficult or even dangerous for firefighters to reach to start a backfire. We can also do backfiring at night when it would be too dangerous for ground personnel to be doing it. The drone is also equipped with an infrared (IR) camera, so we can see things clearly at night.

“With the Alta X UAS, we are getting about 30 minutes of flight time depending on the payload and altitude. Since we are in line-of-sight communication with the drone, we are limited to about one to two miles’ range. If we need extended time, the unit is returned and the battery can be quickly swapped out for a fresh one. The teams carry multiple batteries for extended flight time.”

The challenge of fighting wildfires in California and the western USA is only going to grow as climate change and increasing populations strain firefighting resources. But agencies have shown that, by engaging private companies such as power companies, coordinating state, local, and federal organizations, and exploring new technology, these challenges can be successfully met.