CAL FIRE   Fresno   Hemet-Ryan   McClellan   McClellan 2010   Porterville   Ramona

CAL FIRE  (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) - Formerly California Department of Forestry (CDF)

CAL Fire operates 48 classic warbirds as part of its statewide firefighting program.  The Aviation Department operates (23) S-2T 1200 gallon "First Responder" Tracker tankers, (11) UH-1H Huey Helicopters and (14) OV-10 Broncos.  One of each of the fixed wing aircraft are kept as a spare for trading out for maintenance during the fire season and two of the Hueys are kept back for the same reason.

During my trip to California in May of 2009 I was able to visit several of the Cal Fire Air Attack Bases and get tours of the facilities and the aircraft.  I found that the CAL FIRE personal at each location were always friendly, professional and willing to show me around and explain what there capabilities were at each location and what their mission was.  I am looking forward to returning to California and visiting other Air Attack Bases along with revisiting the ones previously visited as time permits in the future.  Actually I arrived before the bases would have normally opened but due to the continuing drought and early fire season some of the bases were opening early, starting in the south and then working northward up the state.  All of the bases have to be open by Father's day in June.  Due to the early base openings many of the aircraft were temporarily not at their assigned bases, as each base had to take whatever planes had gotten through the winter maintenance and inspection program at the CAL FIRE Air HQ and Maintenance Facility at McClellan Airport in Sacramento.

It should be noted that CAL FIRE is a state wide Fire Department providing fire protection for over 31 million acres of California's privately-owned wildlands along with providing varied emergency services in 36 of the State's 58 counties on a contractual basis.

CAL FIRE  Station Location Map

CAL FIRE operates both air attack bases (Fixed wing S-2T and OV-10A) and Helitack Bases (UH-1H) with the intent of being able to reach an location in California within 15 minutes flight time.  In some cases the two types of bases are co-located.

CAL FIRE   Fresno   Hemet-Ryan   McClellan   McClellan 2010   Porterville   Ramona