Karen Kucher
The San Diego Union-Tribune
(TNS)
A $12 million construction project at the Ramona Airport will provide much-needed improvements to Cal Fire’s air-attack base there and allow it to more quickly load fire retardant onto larger air tankers, including one that carries up to 4,000 gallons that will be based in Ramona.
The work, expected to start next month, calls for contractors to demolish the current fire-retardant reloading bays and build redesigned ones that allow planes to more quickly get back into the air. The job is expected to take eight to 12 months to finish.
The Ramona Air Attack Base has operated at the rural airport since 1957. The renovations will be focused on the north side of the airport and are not expected to impact any civilian flight operations, Cal Fire spokesperson Capt. Mike Cornette said.
He said the current configuration requires pilots to “kind of loop around” to point a plane’s tail toward the bays, where they are hooked up to a hose dispensing fire retardant. Larger aircraft cannot tail-in load because their wingspans are too large.
“Retardant loading hosing must be pulled out to (large) aircraft as the (aircraft) are pulled parallel to the loading pits,” a state budget report explained.
The new ones will be more efficient, officials say, because they will allow aircraft to pull off the airport taxiway directly to where they can be resupplied. Tankers can then go directly onto the taxiway and return to the runway.
That “pass through” design is expected to cut down on delays, resupply aircraft more quickly and get them in the air sooner, Cornette said. “It’s going to be more efficient for our air tankers to reload,” he said.
Part of the project also calls for redoing concrete pavement installed in 2000 that did not meet design specifications and which has fractured and crumbled. Airplane engines can be damaged if they suck pieces of concrete into intakes.
A state budget change proposal that outlined the $12 million request said Cal Fire has had to perform maintenance and repairs as mitigation for the problematic pavement.
Once all the work is completed, one of seven C-130H airplanes that Cal Fire has acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard is to be assigned to Ramona. Two have already been deployed elsewhere in the state.
The large tankers, which are four-engine prop planes, are being retrofitted and will be able to drop more than three times the amount of fire retardant than the 1,200 gallons that S-2T air tankers based in Ramona can carry.
Fire officials say several steps will be taken to ensure “uninterrupted air response” during the construction project, including plans to keep the two air tankers currently stationed at Ramona fully loaded and available.
Officials also plan to double the number of air tankers dispatched to confirmed fires. While they normally send two tankers for an initial attack, they now plan to send four. That’s because the tankers will have to fly to a Riverside County air base to get more retardant.
“We are going to send those two additional air tankers to help supplement that extended flight time,” Cornette said.
The agency also has plans to activate a temporary reload base at Brown Field Municipal Airport near the border if there is an “extended attack” fire or some kind of special circumstance. When called up, contractors can quickly set up a temporary facility to supply fire retardant.
Fire officials say they are “well-resourced” with seven helicopters they can call upon when a fire ignites, including ones operated by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, San Diego Gas & Electric, Cal Fire/San Diego Cou