A 180-day program providing additional firefighting helicopters to departments in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties will begin Tuesday.
The Quick Reaction Force program includes two Boeing Chinook CH-47 helitankers, one based at Van Nuys Air Tanker Base and the other at the Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, and a Sikorsky S-61 helitanker, based in Ventura County.
The CH-47s are considered the world's largest fire suppression, retardant-dropping helicopters with the capacity to carry 3,000 gallons. Unlike other firefighting helicopters, they have the ability to fly at night.
"That's a lot of firefighting power, if you will, when you can drop 3,000 gallons of water onto a brush fire. It's an important tool," Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Thanh Nguyen told City News Service. "We're grateful that we will be able to use it. It's impressive."
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The program is being financed with nearly $18 million from Southern California Edison.
Millions of residents in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties are among the most vulnerable living within wildfire-prone areas, fire experts said.
Extreme drought conditions and dry vegetation, along with predictions of a dire wildfire season ahead, led to the formation of the QRF program.
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"Generally, when we get a wildfire, it's accompanied with strong winds," Nguyen said. "(Helicopter) pilots have a lot to contend with."
The QRF program contracts exclusively for up to 180 days with Coulson Aviation to combine aerial firefighting resources, pre-assembled in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, with a mobile retardant base and hover-filling tanks.
For the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the CH-47s will enhance the department's air operations fleet which includes five Sikorsky S-70 Firehawks and five Bell 412 helicopters, in addition to a seasonal contract with Quebec for the 90-day lease of two CL-415 SuperScoopers expected to arrive in early September, officials said.