Taking the fight to the night against California's wildfires with new helicopters

Bill Whitaker reports on the largest helicopter to ever fight fires at night, used in California as the state faced one of its most intense fire years ever.

#60Minutes #News #Wildfires

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[viking]

When fighting for your "turf" is more important than fighting the fires, every single senior manager at the Forest Servic and at CalFire should be fired and replaced with people who have the common sense to know what is actually important.

[peace.]

Fighting at night is so important because it is when the wind dies down. Sometimes the only relief in the spread of the fire is during the middle of the night.

[reedembley]

As a former firefighter, the greatest thing about firefighting is tradition and the worst part of firefighting is tradition.

[ericclaptonsrobotpilot]

Appreciate the coverage of the infighting between USFS, state, and local agencies. The forest service is one of the pettiest and poorly managed agencies in the world. The middle management at FS district offices are some of the least motivated and bureaucratic people I’ve ever worked with.

[theodoreolson]

I prefer fire departments flying former military helicopters than police departments driving MRAP Armored vehicles.

[kelseycoyote]

We just had another fire, the sheep fire in Wrightwood southern California. Hot shot crews were here, the choppers and aircraft as I watched the fire all night, flames, and embers rising into the sky, getting closer. Thank God all the crews were able to stop it before it got to our little village. I'm grateful these brave, innovative professionals are using these high tech choppers!

[midday]

I used to work for both the US Forest Service and the National Park Service after retiring from the Department of Defense (DoD). I have to say, with regards to management and work ethics, the NPS and the US Forest Service are light years behind DoD. Not hating, just stating the facts. Trying to improve work processes or policies in either agency is impossible to say the least. The word “change” to them is not even in their vocabulary.

[peacefulwind]

I live in northern California and there has been talk for several years about the infighting with CALFire. Citizens are always told that it is just a rumor, but turns out to be true. This is just insane with the amount of property loss, health problems and most importantly loss of life due to fires that could have been extinguished a lot earlier.

[kathyvaughn]

As the owner of a cabin that survived Caldor due to heroic firefighter efforts, earlier forest clearing, and phenomenal firefighting science, these aircraft are worth every penny! Take my money!

[naconakothe]

Amazing to see older men agreeing to change! Acknowledging that they must side with technology to save lives! This is something many people in authority lack! This is amazing. Im excited to see what the future holds

[broomstickcowgirl]

Born and raised in Cali, I'd never heard of the Tuna fire. A few seconds later. I knew why. Thanking you hero's!!

[corsair]

Many of these agencies have leadership that view their responsibilities as fiefdoms. Any new tech or additional assets that doesn’t come from those agencies, is viewed with high skepticism and usually dismissed outright.
CalFire dismissed a proposal from a group of wealthy vineyard owners who were willing to purchase two firefighting airplanes to protect the Napa Valley, willing to pay for all the compliance necessary. Nope, got declined.
Months later, a contracted helicopter from Coulson was assigned to operate out of Napa airport.

[Xcmyu]

Thank you for your service- my house was spared by feet! The helicopters helped to save my Tahoe neighborhood and I had no idea about this awesome technology! More communication is needed and more tax dollars!!

[georgef]

I’m not from Cali, I live in New England but thank you to these men and women. This is truly game changing fire fighting tech

[Cooper]

In 2004 San Diego was on fire and military planes stood by waiting to help but no one could authorize the planes to go up. San Diego learned after that. America is so lucky that we have made it this far. This fire fighter guy from Orange County needs to be heard.

[sc-iekg]

Awesome to see these strategies being transitioned to civilian use. As a vet, I cannot explain the true joy and relief of hearing CAS (combat air support) up above. Hopefully those men and women will also experience this. Now all they need is to adapt (or completely change) the chain of command and command climate. Military isn't perfect, but compared to the civilian sector, it almost looks too agile and that's saying A LOT. I see the biggest problem not the age, but lack of consistently rotating command structure. Complacency kills and when you're in one job at one place, not only do you become stubborn, you view change as a direct threat.

[TamagoHead]

This is what happens if you don’t cut down trees. Forestry disservice is stupid.

Try to harvest lumber on a hill with no roads. It’s not cheap.

[charelsmanson]

There is a 30 million dollar aircraft specfically to fight fires drops 15 thousand gallons every 5-10mins depending on where water sources are.

[gingerschlavin]

To a person still trying to recover from this fire. Shame on these agencies

[TODD_FL]

Strange. Even in fire service alone you get the "old timers" that are resistant to change. It's a new century/millennium. Technology is advancing. It's time to take it and use it for good for safety and for bettering a persons life. To sit around and not look for a BETTER way or fast and efficient way to fight these fires in 2022 is just stupid. Those people that resisted flying at night should be publicly shamed. Including the ones that did the infighting!