County breaks ground on permanent helicopter base

By: TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer | Friday, November 18, 2005 10:58 PM PST ∞

FALLBROOK ---- San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn and Sheriff Bill Kolender broke ground Friday on a permanent home for the county's second firefighting helicopter, ushering in what they described as a new era in battling brush fires.

"We're about to enhance firefighting ability in Fallbrook and all of North County," Kolender said at a short ceremony at the Fallbrook Community Airpark, where the helipad will be built.

"From this helipad, we will be permanently operating Copter 12, and the aircraft's primary mission will be initial attacks on wildfires," the sheriff added.

San Diego County has been operating a helicopter at the Fallbrook facility on a trial basis since July 2004.

In June, the Board of Supervisors designated $550,000 in the county budget to create a permanent base for the Bell 205 medium-lift helicopter, one of two firefighting copters in the county purchased through a community effort for $5.5 million each.

Fire officials said Friday they were pleased with the county's decision to make the Fallbrook helicopter base permanent.

"We've needed it for so long," said Milt Davies, a division chief with the North County Fire Protection District. "They can launch that (helicopter) in just a few minutes, and get on a fire in its incipient stage ..."

Davies said the fire protection district has "done several rescues with the chopper already. For us to not to have had one for all these years, when the counties around us had a fleet of helicopters, we were all pretty sad."

The $500,000 set aside to create the permanent base in Fallbrook will include construction of the helipad, buying a tanker truck for helicopter fuel, shelter for the crews that will be stationed there, and security upgrades.

"Two years ago, we didn't have any helicopters up here," said Horn, whose largely rural North County district has been hit by numerous wildfires during the last few years. He said previously that he wanted a helicopter stationed in North County because the area is so far from San Diego's emergency support airfields.

Horn said having a permanent helicopter base at the Fallbrook facility, just north of Fallbrook High School off Mission Road, will ensure that North County always has a helicopter nearby to conduct water drops or rescue missions.

Since Fallbrook's Fire Department began working with a helicopter crew in 2004, Davies said they have found that a chopper helps fight wildfires in various other ways beyond just dropping water.

"We could do reconnaissance with it, and we've flown in crews with it to fix the radios on the mountaintops, so its utilitarian value has been immeasurable," he said. "You put a chief in there and fly him around, let him look at the fire for 10 minutes ---- it makes all the difference in the world.

"This is a real feather in our cap."

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 731-5799 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.