SAN DIEGO -- County Copter 1, one of San Diego County's two firefighting and rescue helicopters, will soon be able to work after dark thanks to recently installed high-tech night vision gear.

Copter 1, a twin-engine Bell Huey 212, along with County Copter 2, a nearly identical single-engine Bell Huey 205, will soon employ the night-vision capability in their fire and search-and-rescue missions, becoming only the second fire department in the country to use the gear. Los Angeles County is the first to use the equipment.

Copter 1 is a high performance model based out of San Diego's Montgomery Field. It boasts two 900 horsepower gas turbine engines and rotors that spin at 500 miles per hour.

The helicopter's nine-member crew has been training with the night vision equipment for about two months. Copter 2, based out of Fallbrook Community Airpark, is in the process of being equipped with the gear, and should be ready for training missions this fall.

Both helicopters, leased under contract from Idaho-based Kachina Aviation with county dollars and through private donations, serve all of San Diego County and can carry 375 gallons of water to douse blazes. Officials have wanted them in place since last year's wildfires, which scorched more than 375,000 acres of land and killed 17 people.

And being able to fly and work at night when fixed-winged aircraft are grounded is seen as a bonus.

"We're getting to the point where we're extremely comfortable flying with the equipment at night," said Copter 1 crew chief Tom Stephenson, a firefighter and paramedic with the city of San Diego. "Safety is the number one concern, and we're doing it by the numbers, like it should be done."

Though used extensively in the military, night vision equipment is used by only about 12 police agencies across the United States. The equipment is difficult to get because so many of the units manufactured are earmarked for the military, Stephenson said.

The night vision goggles, which cost $10,000 a pair, run on two rechargeable AA batteries and are mounted on the crews' helmets. The instrument lights inside the helicopter are filtered so as not to appear overly bright when the goggles, which magnify surrounding light sources, are being worn.

To get familiar with the night vision gear, which allows the pilot and crew to see even a pitch-black landscape in a greenish hue, Copter 1's crew members train regularly at night, often in San Diego's Sycamore Canyon. Routine practice maneuvers include dropping a weighted bucket and crew members off in the dark canyon and then employing 250 feet of hoist line, which can hold up to 600 pounds, to retrieve the bucket and the crew.

"There are all kinds of critters down there," said Bill Alton, the crew's paramedic, of the Sycamore Canyon training missions. Alton also works as a paramedic on police missions. "I hate it when they leave me down there alone at night."

A typical rescue crew is usually three people -- a pilot, a paramedic and the crew's chief. Firefighting missions typically involve more crew members, and the pilot will land to drop off a crew, which will work to contain the fire, while the helicopter returns to the air to drop water on the blaze.

The search-and-rescue crew trains for precision, aiming to drop the hoist line on a specific target, usually a person or the practice bucket.

Stephenson said getting the moves right takes hours of training, especially with variables that require pilot and crew adjustment such as shifts in wind direction and speed.

"I think this hoist has more training hours on it than most, which is very important in terms of familiarity and getting it on target," said Tom Stephenson, Copter 1's crew chief. "If you have someone immobilized on a c-spine (back board), then they can't move to where you are, and you have to get the line right to them."

Another goal is limiting movement, or "swinging," of the hoist line when dropping a crew member off. Copter 1 Pilot Eric Connell, who has more than 30,000 hours of flying experience, practices holding the helicopter in a motionless hover -- no small feat with an aircraft that weighs 11,200 pounds when carrying water.

"We haven't had a broken fingernail yet," Stephenson said. "We're doing a lot of information sharing with L.A. County because they had it before and can provide us with valuable starting points. The whole thing is very exciting for us."

Contact staff writer Anne Riley-Katz at (760) 731-5799 or ariley-katz@nctimes.com.