San Bernardino Air Tanker Base plays critical role in Southern California’s fight against wildfires

Firefighters on the ground and in the air are battling three major wildfires in Southern California.

The Airport, Bridge and Line Fires have burned more than 110 thousand acres in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Line Fire burning closest to us in the San Bernardino National Forest has burned just over 38 thousand acres and is now 25 percent contained.

The man accused of starting the fire, Justin Wayne Halstenberg is facing several arson related charges. His arraignment was delayed Friday and is now scheduled for Monday.

Our crews were able to take tour of the San Bernardino Airtanker Base that’s centrally located among all three fires that are burning simultaneously.

The base is currently loading air tankers with fire retardant that’s being used to combat the flames that are scorching thousands of acres throughout Southern California.

A portion of the world’s largest civil aerial firefighting fleet is being serviced at the San Bernardino Air Tanker Base.

About a dozen Cal Fire aircrafts are being constantly loaded with thousands of gallons of fire retardant.

"It keeps us hopping," said Kenneth Duvall, a base manager at the Phos-Check plant within the base. "We're loading roughly 70 to 100 loads. These fires are all fairly close, so they come back pretty quick."

The fire retardant, also known as Phos-Check is stored in a handful of large tanks then pumped into the aircrafts.

Duvall says his crews can load up to six air tankers at a time.

"We doing about a couple 100 thousand gallons of retardant a day, which is a lot," said Duvall.

The fire retardant that can be best described as a pink or red chalk substance is dropped over the fire line to help slow the spread, allowing ground crews to carry out an effective mop up.

Once the Phos-Check is loaded in the air tankers they can take to the skies with the help of U.S. Forest Service.

"When we're up as an aerial supervisor, we coordinate these guys coming in make sure they don't run into each other," said Kyle Tolosano, an Air Tactical Group Supervisor with the U.S. Forest Service. "That's our most important job, because you could have 20 aircraft working the fire at the same time."

Once the air tankers take flight, the aerial supervisor works closely with the pilot to execute the retardant drop.

"Based on the fuel and the fire behavior, we'll tell the tanker pilots what coverage level we want, and then they'll adjust that inside, and then when they come in and drop it where we ask them to that's how much you'll see on the ground," said Tolosano.

Although crews stay busy on the ground preparing airtankers for takeoff, the weather sometimes has other plans.

I asked Chief Curtis Rhodes, "Yesterday some of the fleet couldn't make it out to the Line Fire because of low visibility and the smoke. Did you run into the same problems today?"

Chief Rhodes answered, "Correct, the weather stayed very similar today (Friday) as it was yesterday (Thursday). We did continue to keep two type 1 air tankers assigned to the fire in the event."

The San Bernardino air tanker base serves  as the central hub to provide critical aerial firefighting assistance.

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