San Diego Fire Rescue Unveils New Wildland Apparatus, Helicopter

When San Diego’s fire season hits its peak this year, there should be a couple of new tools in the firefighter’s old toolbox. Among them, two new brush rigs, which are trucks designed for fighting wildfires, and a nearly-ready-to-deploy helicopter. The department also boasts a new high-tech mobile command center.

“Wildfires won’t wait, and neither will we,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning to highlight local fire prep. “We will be prepared.”

Recent years have seen what is often called “fire season” — a time of high danger for big wildfires — stretch to become year-round. Even so, the region sees more fire activity roughly around September and October, when Santa Ana winds whip hot air through dry and brittle brush.

“These conditions can turn what would normally be a manageable fire into something much greater that threatens homes and communities in minutes,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Robert Logan said at the news conference at the Fire-Rescue Training Facility near San Diego International Airport.

When the two new brush rigs come online this fall, Fire-Rescue will have 13 such specialized wildfire trucks in its fleet. Logan said the new rigs hold 600 gallons of water and “are designed to move quickly and methodically through tough terrain to stop the progress of wildfires.” They run about $750,000 each.

Then there is that new helicopter, a Bell 412 EPX, brought in to replace an already retired 40-year-old chopper in the fleet. The $14 million helicopter is nearly ready to go — it’s getting about $2 million in add-ons — and is expected to be in use by the end of November, according to Battalion Chief Chuck McFarland, who runs Fire-Rescue’s air operations division. McFarland said it features modern avionics, upgraded engines and a larger water tank (it can drop 375 gallons). And like the other two helicopters currently in San Diego’s fleet, it can fly at night.

Gloria and Logan addressed reporters while standing in front of Fire-Rescue’s new $3.2 million mobile command unit, which is essentially a command and communications vehicle sent to large-scale incidents and planned events. Logan called it “a high-tech hub built to support complex incidents, coordinate multi-agency responses and even back up our 911 dispatch system if needed.”

Since putting it into service in April, Fire-Rescue has used the vehicle for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and Fourth of July operations, and sent it to a wildfire in San Pasqual Valley. It was also brought to the scene of the deadly May 22 plane crash in a Murphy Canyon residential neighborhood, according to Deputy Chief Ted Moran, who oversees Fire-Rescue’s logistics division.

Moran said it provides a central setting for decision-makers on scene; during the plane crash, it gave a place for police and fire leadership to work directly with federal aviation and transportation safety officials. “A lot of different agencies were in the room together, all receiving the same information in real time, allowing us to make collaborative decisions,” Moran said. He said it can also accommodate up to six dispatchers in case a disaster or emergency knocks out the actual dispatch center.

Another slice of fire preparedness, Gloria said, is for San Diego residents to take “simple yet credible steps” — from clearing brush and debris on their property to crafting an emergency plan for their family. It might also help to get digital — downloading the Genasys Protect app, which provides information regarding evacuations, and registering to get emergency messages through Alert San Diego.

And starting last month, San Diego Fire-Rescue began offering a “home risk assessment,” an inspection intended to educate homeowners regarding defensible space as well as the ember resistance zone immediately surrounding a structure. The goal, according to the department, is to make homes more defensible and insurable. More information can be found at sandiego.gov/wildfire.