In the wake of a stinging critique issued by the Los Angeles County Fire Department after last year’s Station Fire, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is reviewing its ban on most nighttime aerial fire fighting. The Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest raged for nearly two months before it was contained, but not until it had destroyed 250 sq mi of forest (160,000 acres) and 96 homes. At its apex it threatened more than 7,000 homes and 200 commercial properties. More than 4,800 firefighters fought the blaze. Helicopters (both owned and contract) from the Los Angeles County Fire Department flew a combined 155.5 flight hours. Total cost of fighting the fire was more than $90 million.
In a report issued late last year, L.A. County fire chief Mike Freeman asserted that the fire could have been better contained if the USFS allowed helicopter operations throughout the night and early morning of the fire’s first days, August 26 and 27. “To say that the [Los Angeles County Fire Department] fire helicopters could have been better utilized in the Station Fire is a fair and accurate assertion,” Freeman wrote. “The fire-suppression philosophy must move from ‘taking what the fire will give us’ to ‘hitting the fire early and hard.’ Specifically, nighttime rotary wing air attack (when safe) must be employed on a regular basis,” Freeman wrote.
