C
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
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