SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - On Thursday afternoon, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Cal Fire officials announcedthe latest addition to the agency’s ability to fight fires from the sky.
"There's not another state in the country that is as resourced as the state of California is as it relates to its aerial fighting fleet. It's the largest in the world,” Newsom said.
"It is an honor to be here today to talk about the expansion of Cal Fire's aviation firefighting fleet,” Chief Joe Tyler, Cal Fire Director, said.
The expansion is the second of seven new C-130 Hercules airplanes retrofitted to do water and fire-retardant dumps.
Tyler said the planes were acquired through the National Defense Authorization Actand the first plane was in the air fighting fires last year.
He said it's stationed at McClellan Air Base in Sacramento.
"The second air tankers will be placed in Fresno. The third air tanker will initially be here and then moved to San Diego in Ramona,” Tyler said. “We plan to have the third air tanker available in the middle of the fire year; late summer this year."
Tyler said Cal Fire plans to continue retrofitting the remaining planes that will be placed in Chico, Paso Robles, Sacramento and another will be surge and spare plane.
"They're capable of holding up to 4,000 gallons of water or retardant. That's compared to the 1,200 gallons in the smaller S2T planes,” Captain Robert Johnson, Cal Fire San Diego, said.
Johnson told ABC 10News we’ve seen the impact these kinds of planes can have not only in our area but all of Southern California.
"In the month of January, the C-130 did come down from McClellan and it did assist on local incidents. It was assigned to the Border incident in January, as well as it flew on the Palisades Fire,” Johnson said. "Having the ability to have additional air tankers in the fleet is a huge benefit to the fire locally."
Tyler added that Cal Fire is looking for opportunities to finish retrofitting the rest of the plane by the end of 2026.
