Citing a fire season that “never went away” this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom officially welcomed expansion of the state’s aerial firefighting force on Thursday in an airplane hangar at McClellan Park near Sacramento.
Standing before the first of the state’s enormous, fully equipped C-130 Hercules tanker planes, which prides a 4,000-gallon water capacity and increased speed to fight fires, officials expressed appreciation that after several years of waiting, seven of these planes will ultimately be situated throughout the state.
“This is a big deal,” Newsom said, noting California has the largest civilian aerial firefighting fleet in the world. “There’s not another state in the country that can lay claim to a moment like this.”
Joe Tyler, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), said that along with the two tankers currently in use, a third was being retrofitted with the latest tech and communication equipment.
“We plan to have the third air tanker available in the middle of the fire year, late summer, this year, and continue to retrofit the rest, looking at opportunities to have them done by the end of 2026,” Tyler said.
The first tanker, 122, will be housed at McClellan Park, while the second, 121, will be placed in Fresno. The third tanker will be placed in Ramona in San Diego County, with others ultimately being housed also at McClellan, Paso Robles, Chico, and the seventh tanker designated for “surge and spare.”
Tyler said that, with an increase in fires in the western United States, there is a growing and greater need.
“We can expect more to come,” Tyler said of wildfires. “The conditions have changed in California. The hotters are hotter. The driers are drier.
“This is the right time to have these aircraft,” he said.
Tyler said that the U.S. Forest Service originally tried to create a fleet of seven C-130s in 2013, but couldn’t get adequate funding to maintain it. Cal Fire then went after acquiring the fleet, ultimately acquiring it in a cooperative agreement with both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard.
Because of federal maintenance requirements, however, use of the fleet was delayed for years until, with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, the fleet was finally transferred to California on Dec. 14, 2023.
“Immediately the (Cal Fire) aviation management unit went into retrofitting these aircraft,” Tyler said, with the first finally available for use last summer.
Newsom, citing bi-partisan support in obtaining the fleet, both praised the state’s work and acknowledged there was more to be done.
“We have close to doubled the investment in the last couple of years at Cal Fire,” he said. “We have significantly increased investments in the aerial fleet well beyond the C-130 H’s.”
Newsom cited a range of technology investments, including night vision capabilities, communication access, and employment of Artificial Intelligence, with partnerships in both private and military sectors.
“People come from all across the globe to learn more about how it’s being done through the Office of Emergency Services and Cal Fire,” he said. “We’re proud of that. We’re also mindful we have to do more.”
“We have to step up our game,” he said, noting that the January fires underscore the urgency for progress.
Newsom said that along with work on fire suppression, additional attention is being given to prevention, including “unprecedented investments in vegetation and forest management.”
“We’ve heard people loudly and clearly,” he said. “We can’t make up for 100 years of what wasn’t done and we’re not looking in the rearview mirror (but) we’re focused on what we can do today.”
Toward that end, Newsom put in a plea to Washington, D.C., to be more involved.
“We need federal support … Fifty-seven percent of the forest land in California is federal responsibility. Three percent is the state,” he said.
“We have a shared stewardship agreement with the federal administration, but we need to see it funded,” Newsom said. “This administration just cut 10% of the U.S. Forest budget. You can’t even make that up. That’s not risk-taking, that’s recklessness.”
“We’ll do our part, but we need stronger partnership,” he said.
Newsom said that this past year, fire season never went away, so people need to remain wary.
“Fire season never went away, but it’s about to peak. Be prepared, take things seriously,” he said.
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