Special Choppers to Let CA Crews Fight Wildfires at Night

A California fire department will be testing two special helicopters equipped to battle blazes at night in the upcoming months. The aircraft had been used against Australian wildfires in 2018.

The Orange County Fire Authority will lease the helicopters thanks to a $4 million Southern California Edison grant as part of a pilot program that begins this month, the Orange County Register reports. Coulson Aviation—the company leasing the helicopters to the fire authority now and that leased them to Australian firefighters last year—also will provide the program with trained pilots familiar with the equipment to fly night missions within Edison's 50,000-square-mile service area.

Two different helicopters will be used by the OFCA over the next five months. One helicopter is designed to survey ground conditions in order to locate possible water outlets, as well as avoid dangers, such as high-tension wires. The other helicopter will be a tanker that can refill from a pond or lake while hovering at night, the first of its kind to be used in the United States, according to the Register.

Because of the more favorable wind conditions and lower temperatures and humidity at night, firefighters can have an easier time controlling and containing wildfires during these periods than throughout the day. Previously, the fire authority has used aircraft provided by other agencies through mutual aid agreements to run nighttime operations, the Register added.