The Cal Fire tankers are set up at the Air Attack Base in the Ukiah Airport for fire season, making sure the planes are ready to respond to sudden blazes.
One issue they have had to consider in recent years, and a growing concern, is drones.
Jim Merryfield, an air attack pilot who flies above the tankers and coordinates each response, said drones are actually quite dangerous in the field; they could hit a pilot’s windscreen or get sucked into the engine.
“If we see a drone in the fire traffic area, we have to shut down (all operations),” he said, until they can locate the flier and get the drone out of their way.
Every morning, the pilots check flight conditions, including scanning their area for any drones. During the pilots’ morning prep on Tuesday, they were informed of an incident in Riverside, in which a drone held up a fire attack, flying from one side of the 200-acre fire area to the other.
Merryfield said he has noticed an increase in the number of drones interfering in their operations in the past few years, usually being flown by an unknowing citizen trying to get photos of a big wildfire.
“A lot of people don’t realize that they’re having this effect,” he said.
Drones are a huge concern for Cal Fire, which has been trying to reach out to people and educate them about the potential accidents their high-tech toys could cause, according to Merryfield.
Trying to navigate around a fire, placing 1,000 gallons of a liquid substance (fire retardant) on the ground and accounting for wind and other factors is already tricky, the pilots at the base said, and all of that careful planning comes to a halt if a drone is close by.
Since the base set up on June 15, the pilots have responded to about a dozen fires. They typically wait to hear the three beeps from dispatch, indicating an emergency, and travel in Mendocino County, Lake County north of Clearlake and, sometimes, Sonoma or Chico.
Gary Thomas, pilot of Tanker 90, had just come back from helping fight the “Wall Fire” in Oroville, Calif., which had burned through 5,800 acres and destroyed at least 99 structures (including 41 houses) in Butte County as of Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire.
Thomas said on Tuesday afternoon the fire was pretty much dead, after wreaking havoc for three days.
So far this season, there has not been a huge fire in Mendocino County, the pilots said. But if they get the call, they are ready to attack.
