Report on the use of night-flying helicopters on the Cedar Fire

The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center has released a report on the use of night-flying aircraft on the Cedar Fire west of Kernville, California that burned approximately 30,000 acres in August.

Two night-flying helicopters, from the Angeles National Forest and Kern County, were used along with a night-flying air attack. The video above shows the two helicopters flying to and dropping on a spot fire detected by the air attack ship.

Below are some quotes from the report:

“We were the first resources into the subdivision. We were having a difficult time figuring out where to go (fire front). Night ATGS located us with infrared and directed us to the right location.”
Engine Captain

“The Helicopter saved our bacon and let us keep working on digging line.”
Crew Member

“We were digging line next to the fire. I looked up and there were 25-foot flames. H-531 came in, cooled it down, and we continued digging line.”
Crew Member

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One thought on “Report on the use of night-flying helicopters on the Cedar Fire”

  1. sure it’s nice but…

    Plenty of daylight between sunrise and noon when winds start to pick up (usually). Best time to hammer the fire and build lines. But that window is rarely used. I wonder why.

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