The annual return of Calfire air attack planes at the Hollister Municipal Airport signals an earlier-than-normal start to the wildfire season, to which newly appointed Battalion Chief Josh Nettles and his crew are ready to respond at a moment’s notice.
Last week, the state’s fire protection agency placed an air-tactical plane and an air tanker at the Hollister Air Attack Base on the south side of the airport. Crews already were called out this week to a small fire southwest of San Benito County.
“This season is shaping up to be a more active season than last year,” said Nettles, who was appointed in April after previously serving in the Riverside and Madera-Mariposa-Merced units. “With not as much rain as normal this year, and almost no rain from December through February, fuel moistures are down compared to last year.”
Eleven air attack bases throughout the state are on alert to respond to fire calls, with the Hollister base averaging one to six calls per day during the June 1 to Oct. 31 fire season. That start date was bumped up this year by weather and fuel conditions, so the local base by May 28 will add a second tanker – capable of holding 1,200 gallons of phosphate-based fire retardant.
The local Air Attack Base, one of 11 around the state, will have three pilots on staff when it is at full strength and eight people total on duty. Each tanker will likely see 150 to 200 hours in the year, responding to fires north to Mount Diablo, south to King City, east to Interstate 5 and west to the Pacific Ocean.
“Our goal is to have an aircraft on a fire within 20 minutes of dispatch,” said Nettles, who pilots the OV-10A Bronco tactical plane on each call to provide aerial traffic control for planes as well as be an eye-in-the-sky for coordinating fire fighting tactics on the ground.
After the tankers drop their retardant, they head back to Hollister to get reloaded if needed.
“We like the turnaround on the ground to be 10 to 15 minutes,” Nettles said, emphasizing the base’s goal to get planes back to a fire as soon as possible. The Hollister base is the only one of its kind between Paso Robles and Sonoma.
“We have a lot of high-dollar, high-value areas to protect,” he said. “Our goal is to stop all fires at 10 acres or less. We can slow fires down, but we still need ground crews to put it out. We’re just helping out.”
Fire danger indexes have set new record levels for much of the winter throughout the Central Coast, according to CalFire.
“The recent rains, while beneficial, did not make up for months of below-average precipitation in the San Benito and Monterey County areas where we are in moderate drought condition,” Calfire said in a news release. “The predicted forecast calls for hot, dry conditions, making wild land fuels readily available for burning.”
The Hollister Air Attack Base, consisting of living quarters, a mechanical shop, retardant mixing area and a control tower, has operated for 50 years.
Nettles’ current assignment is a bit of a departure from his original career path, for which he wanted to fly airplanes in the military. He started in the fire service in 1998 at the Marine Corps Station in El Toro before moving on to Riverside and the Central Valley.
“I like the diversity of (working in the fire service),” he said. “Not doing the same thing – things change daily. We could be down in San Diego this evening.”
Nettles said the during the off-season, when air attack planes are serviced and stored at the former McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento County, he and his crew keep themselves in shape physically and mentally, eating right, exercising and studying weather patterns.
As summer approaches, Calfire encourages Californians to be prepared for wildfires by having a minimum of 100 feet of defensible space around their homes and other structures on their property. Tips on preparing for the fire season are available at www.ReadyForWildfire.org.
