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ALIFORNIA WAS UNDER

siege, not by a human enemy,

but by something even harder

to fi ght... fi re. It was October

2003, and during that month

15 major wildfi res burned in

the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. One

of these became known as the Cedar Fire,

and it ended up as the largest in California’s

history. It scorched some 280,000 acres and

ripped through 2,200 homes, claiming 15

lives. At its peak, the blaze was spreading

at the astonishing rate of nine acres per

second.

The Santa Ana winds gusting at up to

100mph were fanning the fl ames and the

local authorities were struggling to cope.

Civil fi re and law enforcement agencies in

the area could only call upon two-dozen

helicopters to help suppress the fi res, and, in

conditions like these, back-up was required.

The US Navy responded, offering to

draft SH-60 Seahawks into action to

help support Cal Fire — the California

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Cal Fire actually had no idea that the Navy

could assist — it wasn’t aware of the local

aerial fi refi ghting capability offered by the

squadrons at NAS North Island in San

Diego. However, the Navy had already used

Bambi Buckets attached to the Seahawk’s

cargo hooks to drop water on fi res started on

bombing ranges during live-fi re exercises.

The snag was that, at the time, Cal Fire had

no way to integrate the Navy into the civilian

aerial fi refi ghting system.

‘In early 2004, we met with US Navy

offi cials of Navy Region South-west to

discuss using their helicopters on our fi res’,

says Ray Chaney, a battalion chief with

Cal Fire in charge of the special operations

battalion for the San Diego ranger unit. He

manages the fi xed- and rotary-wing aerial

fi refi ghting program for the unit. ‘The biggest

issue was to make sure we could integrate

them in a safe, effective manner. Their pilots

are highly skilled professionals, but are not

used to working in the civilian aerial

fi refi ghting world.

‘We developed a memorandum of

understanding [MoU]’, continues Chaney,

‘which spelled out exactly how and when

the Navy resources could be requested. We

then began training with the military crews.

We will continue to modify and improve

the working relationship until I believe

we have a model program for the country,

and the rest of the world, for integrating

military resources into civilian emergencies.

We train on a regular basis at the squadron

level and have developed a great working

relationship.’

Important contribution

Today, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron

Three (HSC-3) ‘Merlins’ is responsible for the

Navy contribution to the MoU. HSC-3 is the

largest helicopter squadron in the US Navy

with 35 aircraft and acts as the West Coast

training squadron for the SH-60F, HH-60H,

and MH-60S. ‘We are a non-deploying

training squadron, so we always have assets

An HSC-3 MH-60S dips its Bambi

Bucket into a pond during

 re ghting training. Barry D. Smith

http://www.combataircraft.net May 2015 83

82-85 Navy Firefighters C.indd 83 20/03/2015 12:59