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<\/p>\nNew additions include a C-130 air tanker capable of carrying over 4,000 gallons of fire retardant and an S-70 helicopter that can transport 1,000 gallons of water.<\/p>\n
RAMONA, Calif. \u2014 CalFire will soon add two powerful new aircraft to its Ramona Air Attack Base, significantly boosting the agency’s firefighting capabilities in San Diego County.<\/p>\n
The new fleet additions include a C-130 air tanker capable of carrying over 4,000 gallons of fire retardant and an S-70 helicopter that can transport 1,000 gallons of water. The C-130 will more than triple the capacity of the base’s current air tankers, which hold about 1,200 gallons each.<\/p>\n
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“Basically, I see it as a one-two punch,” said Oscar Sotelo from Cal Fire. “We get a vegetation fire in San Diego County, we just increase the aircraft in the area that can go out and help put out these fires.”<\/p>\n
The converted military C-130 will serve as a state resource, moving as needed to respond to wildfires throughout California. CalFire currently operates seven C-130s statewide, with five in active service and two in reserve.<\/p>\n
Sotelo explained the strategic advantages of each aircraft.”<\/p>\n
A helicopter is [a] little bit more nimble, they can be a little more precise. C-130, we’re able to drop 4,000 gallons of fire retardant in one flight, right? It doesn’t have to go back and forth.”<\/p>\n
The Ramona base, already Cal Fire’s southernmost air attack facility, is undergoing infrastructure improvements to accommodate the larger aircraft. Crews are reconstructing the aging tarmac and retardant loading systems with a new drive-through design that will allow faster, safer reloads.<\/p>\n
“They were able to pour some new concrete and upgrade the reloading bays to allow for a pull-through method instead of a U-turn they used to do,” Sotelo said.<\/p>\n
The C-130 is expected to arrive at the Ramona Air Attack Base by mid-June or early July, according to Cal Fire officials.<\/p>\n
“We’re right there with them when it comes to these devastating fires, and we’re putting in the effort and the money to help put these fires out,” Sotelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New additions include a C-130 air tanker capable of carrying over 4,000 gallons of fire retardant and an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":794804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-794803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116570540155683824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}