This rather grainy video is a compressed version of the videos
I took yesterday of the Orange County Fire Department putting out
the Aliso Fire that sprung up in Wood Canyon and
up towards Top of the World in Laguna Beach, California.
Firefighters are amazing! Watch as the pilots dive over Kite Hill
and into the lake in Laguna Niguel Regional Park.
The ducks and herons don't know what to make of a giant
alien like Sikorsky -70
Orange County Fire Air Operations (OCFA) has an interesting history. They try to keep up with the now year round fire season with these wonderful pilots, support staff of gas tankers, mechanics, and men and women who provide many difficult jobs. After the 1993 fire that destroyed almost five hundred homes in Laguna Beach, the Orange County Fire Department re-looked at their plan from the 1978 Orange Ranger Unit and lobby ed for funds to have an aircraft unit.
They started buying helicopters in 1994 from the United States Government as left overs, because this equipment is hugely expensive. OCFA bought its first aircraft from the Federal Excess Property Program. The F.E.P.P. is a program that allows the Federal Government to reassign aircraft it no longer deems serviceable to other government agencies. These are helicopters that were used by the Army in the 1960s, in the Vietnam War.
Next they bought a UH-1H helicopter designated Copter 341 and was intended to fill the gap as a water dropping aircraft while two other UH-1H Orange County Fire Authority were being built. OCFA operates the newly completed UH-1 “Super Huey” helicopters.
That helicopter came to be known as Copter 41. Copter 41 is named after Station 41 in Holy Jim Canyon which is now an all volunteer fire department and also covered by the USDA fire Department (same guys that keep my ranch safe up by Caspers). OCFA operates two Bell 412ep twin-engine helicopters.
I will post the better version of this video on Utube and provide a link as
Blogger only allows 100MB video which is about 30 seconds or less
https://youtu.be/1LK-hXEKuZw