The county Board of Supervisors this week unanimously approved the purchase of a $38 million Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk helicopter from San Diego Gas & Electric for night flying.<\/p>\n
The decision comes as California and the county enter peak wildfire season, and day-or-night wildfire fighting capabilities remain vital for a regional response. However, the agreement will only bring the helicopter under the county\u2019s control next fall. Before the arrival of the new helicopter, Cal Fire will station a reserve Firehawk in the county in the spring.<\/p>\n
The helicopter costs $32 million, and the county will pay an additional $6 million to get it upgraded to Cal Fire operational standards, a county spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery minute matters when wildfire strikes,\u201d Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said. \u201cThis new helicopter provides San Diego County Fire with night-flying firefighting capacity \u2014 protecting families while they sleep, saving lives, and preventing small fires from becoming disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cal Fire will operate and maintain the Firehawk. It nearly triples the region\u2019s helicopter water-drop capacity and ensures dedicated night-flying capability in the region.<\/p>\n
Lawson-Remer said the initial attack at night can be critical to stopping fires before they expand into major disasters, as strong winds and dry conditions can cause small blazes to spread out of control before sunrise.<\/p>\n
The Firehawk can carry 1,000 gallons of water per drop and has a longer flight time than current helicopters owned by the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to jinx it, but I truly believe these investments have made a difference,\u201d Supervisor Jim Desmond said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen a major wildfire in our region in recent years, and that\u2019s not by luck \u2014 it\u2019s because we\u2019ve taken fire safety seriously and acted decisively.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county will get the chopper up to Cal Fire specifications, the same as those used in Los Angeles County, Orange County and the city of San Diego. The region uses 12 aerial firefighting vehicles. The existing county firefighting helicopter last year made more than 1,400 water drops and 159 rescues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis aircraft represents a major leap forward in our ability to protect San Diego County,\u201d Cal Fire San Diego Unit Chief Tony Mecham said. \u201cThe Firehawk\u2019s capacity and endurance will allow us to respond faster, operate safely at night, and help contain wildfires before they threaten homes and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 22, 2025 at 2:27 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The county Board of Supervisors this week unanimously approved the purchase of a $38 million Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,138,23,100,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-21158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-county","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}