San Diego Night Firefighting "Copters 1 and 2 were not needed."

Firefighting Air Assets Sit Unused

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego has two firefighting helicopters with crews equipped and trained to fight fires at night but both sat on the tarmac Monday night as the Juliet Fire raged in parts of Oceanside and Bonsall.

At a news conference last week, local fire officials praised an agreement between the City of San Diego and CalFire to permit the two helicopters to make water drops after sundown.

In previous years, all firefighting aircraft have been grounded at dusk.

Copter 1 and Copter 2 air crews are equipped and trained with military-style night vision goggles that permit nightime firefighting operations.

Both helicopters were not used earlier Monday as the fires raged on Camp Pendleton. CalFire officials told 10News the agreement to fly at night involves only state-controlled land and because the fire began on federal land, the agreement did not apply.

Once the flames spread off Camp Pendleton into parts of Oceanside and Bonsall, the two helicopters could have been used during night operations but were not, a San Diego fire official said, "because no one asked us."

Oceanside Fire Department officials said Tuesday using the Copters at night "never came up." The department's Division Chief of Operations told 10News officials believed at the time that "Copters 1 and 2 were not needed."

Late Monday evening, additional homes were ordered to be evacuated when flames jumped a firebreak but no homes were lost.

Source: 10news.com