As thick black smoke rises past their canopy, the crew of a California National Guard Chinook dives through a scrubby canyon, 500 feet over a line of flames. A cloud of water falls from a bucket slung beneath it, and a plume of white vapor signals to the crew that they’ve hit their mark.
For California National Guard pilots like Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Rosamond, these kinds of maneuvers have been honed over many years and operations.
“Whether it’s our rescues or it’s our firefighting stuff, whenever you’re out helping the community, that is the most rewarding thing you can do, because it’s a selfless act of service,” Rosamond told Task & Purpose. “I think there is a work ethic that comes with that, and you are either the type of person that wants to go out there and get after it, or you’re not. If you’re not, you’re probably not in this organization.”
In 2020, Rosamond and his crew rescued over 300 people and almost 30 pets after campers became trapped at an RV campground during another wildfire. As the Los Angeles wildfires continue to burn this week, National Guard helicopters and their crews have made thousands of drops in the fire zone.
The current California wildfires fueled by Santa Ana winds have spread across over 40,000 acres, with the Palisades Fire accounting for over half of that. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, the 135 wildfires have caused 23 deaths and left more than 12,000 structures destroyed.
The California fire season is traditionally June to November, but as this month’s fires show, they can erupt almost anytime the conditions are right. The California National Guard has had an agreement with Cal Fire for several decades for the former to assist local fire departments when wildfire season rolls through.
“Every time we nail a drop, it’s a high-five type of moment,” Rosamond said. “We want to put in the good work. We want to be effective, and we definitely don’t want to waste time, resources, or money.”
Alerts and planning
Rosamond and his crew were initially sent to Camarillo, about 20 miles from Malibu on the western edge of the fire zones. But severe winds sent the crew back to their home base at Stockton, about a 2-hour flight north. They remain on alert to return to the fire zone if needed. As they awaited an alert, Rosamond spoke with Task & Purpose on how a firefighting crew carries out the precise, split-second maneuvers needed to battle a wildfire.
While on alert, Rosamond said crews get daily briefs on weather and details on each wildfire’s location, growth and which direction they are likely to spread. They study what structures and developments might be in that path.
Missions are passed to crews by an air attack group supervisor, whose position is comparable to a battalion or division chief on the ground. Once requested, the crew will launch load up and head to a “water dip” to fill up their usually a lake or pond where they’ll drop their basket in from a hover or by skimming it on the surface until it’s full.
“We happen to also have water pumps in ours that can suck water in from streams and shallow ponds when the entire bucket can’t be submerged,” Rosamond said.
A full basket can weigh about 16,000 pounds, well below the Chinook’s max cargo weight, but enough to drastically change its flying characteristics.
From there, they’ll be called in by the air controller — usually in a fixed-wing plane well above the fires — to either an active fire or retardant lines to strengthen their fire resistance. Fire retardant lines appear red and prevent wildfire from spreading. Rosamond said that firefighting aircrews are cleared to drop the water from approximately 500 feet, but that can vary depending on flying conditions.
‘Release the water’
Wildfires like the Palisades Fire can send thick smoke and flames to great heights. Flying through thick layers of smoke can blind a crew and they avoid it. Pilots calculate their water drops based on winds and attack from the clear side of the smoke.
Once lined up on the target, the pilot may no longer be able to see the ground and relies on the two flight engineers in back. One will be leaning out of the helicopter’s window, spotting as the pilot’s eyes and ears, while the other plays the role of bombardier, awaiting the word to drop. A cable system connects the bucket hung beneath the Chinook to a release handle in the cargo bay.
“The pilot spots the target and hands it off to the FE in the cabin door who helps fine-tune the alignment based on winds and better visibility of the fire line,” Rosamond said. “He scans for anything that would prevent the drop like hand crews on the line and starts a countdown for the flight engineer in the cargo hole. On the command of ‘Release the Water,’ the FE in the back presses his button.”
The second engineer calls out “Water away, bucket half, bucket 1/4, bucket empty” as it rapidly drains.
As it empties the pilots must keep firm control of the helicopter, which will want to rapidly rise as the weight of the water falls away.
“If we did nothing on the water drop, the aircraft would gain altitude, but we adjust the power to maintain bucket height during the entirety of the drop,” Rosamond said.
All California National Guard soldiers have to go through Cal Fire’s unified training. A pilot in command, what Rosamond referred to as the “fire seat” in the crew, must complete 500 hours of flying and have flown at least one fire season, preferably two or three, in order to go on water drop missions.
Copilots don’t have a minimum hour threshold to meet, but the rest of the crew must complete all of Cal Fire’s annual fire academics, which is a three-part series of courses completed between April and June of every year.
Rosamond said a lot of videos surfacing online are showing local fire departments’ pilots over the LA fires. Those pilots, he said, fly fire missions all year. He calls them the “professionals” of the aerial fire fighting world.
In addition to water drops and rescues, National Guard crews work as the eyes in the sky to ensure ground crews — those fighting the fire from the forest floor — aren’t trapped by the blaze.
“I can see the fruits of my labor in this, versus my stuff overseas where you don’t necessarily see the fruits of your labor,” he said. “But here, you see the immediate impact that you’re providing for the community when you’re able to stop that fire at a ridge line or keep that ground unit from getting burned over and they’re able to get their priority done. It’s an immediate gratification thing.”
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