California Burning: Photographs from the Los Angeles Examiner

How Helicopters Sneakily Changed Fire Fighting

Offering a unique combination of transportation and precision, helicopters made it possible for firefighters to combat flames that they previously could not. Following World War II, the United States government sought to repurpose military equipment like four-wheeler trucks, airplanes, and helicopters to fight new battles on the fire frontier. According to a 1947 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine, the initial usage of helicopters was inefficient; attempts to combat fires through the air consisted of knocking 5-gallon water buckets out vehicle doors.[1] As a result of this failure, the U.S. Forest Service and the Air Force conducted experiments that aimed to maximize the strengths of helicopters. While these experiments weren’t given a name, they took place in Lola National Park in Montana over an undisclosed period of time. Engineers were able to take advantage of the high altitudes that helicopters could reach as well as their precision in being able to hover at a fixed point in space to experiment with “water bombs” that would detonate gallons of water onto fires from varying heights. These new helicopters were able to fuel up to 13,000 pounds of water in one go, and release them in a single burst to instantaneously smother a flame.

Not only did helicopters show great promise in early water transportation efforts, but they also proved critical to the rapid mobilization of troops. For the “first time”, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1963, fires could be fought “just as they [were] started”.[2] Fires often began deep in forests or in sparsely inhabited regions like the backcountry, and helicopters offered a natural bridge to those areas. Firefighters dubbed “smoke jumpers” could drop out of helicopters via parachute to provide immediate assistance to struggling units on the ground. Utilizing helicopters as "cargo carriers” as well as a general reconnaissance unit meant foot soldiers didn’t have to exert themselves as hard.[3] It was now possible to avoid climbing “[mountainous] slopes” and trudging through acres of “100-degree” land just to begin fighting a flame.[4] This lends context to images like the San Bernardino Fire of 1956, where a helicopter is seen hovering over a mountainous landscape, providing critical information to firefighters about the severity of the fire.

Helicopters were a significant development in the world of firefighting. Aside from news coverage, government demonstrations of the capacities of fire-fighting technologies helped inspire public confidence. A notable example is the Coast Guard displaying the precision of their helicopters by dropping “candy-laden parachutes” to children during a “kiddy run” in 1958.[5] Infrastructure for helicopter systems continued to develop throughout the years, spreading to applications like plant and livestock airlifting, utility line patrol, and aerial photography for environmental and wildlife protection.[6] Helicopters were soon capable of all manner of civilian assistance, even beyond firefighting.
 
[1] Water Bombs for Forest Fires,” Popular Mechanics Magazine (October, 1947), 126

[2] “Fire-Fighting Helitankers Stand Ready,” Los Angeles Times (August 18, 1963), 1

[3] “Helicopter’s Value in Mountain Fires Shown,” Los Angeles Times (July 27, 1961), 9

[4] “Foot Soldiers’ Still Crucial in Forest Fires,” Los Angeles Times (August 1, 1976) 2. “Record number of planes used on forest fires,” The Globe and Mail (June 8, 1976) 1

[5] “Military Installation Hold Open House Saturday,” Boston Mass (May 12, 1958) 24

[6] “The sky’s the limit: The endless possibilities of special purpose flying,” The Unesco Courier (April 1978) 15-19
 

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