the Sorrento Fire<\/a>, this behemoth was surgically laying down Phos-Check Fire retardant, gumming up the fire\u2019s advance, and the Hercules is staying right here in our own backyard.<\/p>\n\u201cOne hundred percent unequivocally a force multiplier for our air assets here in San Diego County,\u201d said Byan Baker, a Hercules Training Capt. For Cal Fire.<\/p>\n
S2 fixed-wing fire planes drop 1000 gallons of water at a time\u2026 \u201cYou press this button, and 4,000 gallons of Phos-Check paints the hillside.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hercules\u2019 secret weapon is its time-to-fire, with a max speed of roughly 380 mph; this monster aircraft can get to any part of San Diego County in about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we get a report of a vegetation fire, this thing will get started, dispatch to that fire and get out ahead of those engines,\u201d said Oscar Sotelo, a Capt. From Cal Fire.<\/p>\n
Cal Fire says that, through President Biden\u2019s Defense Production Act, seven of these C130\u2019s were given to Cal Fire from the Coast Guard at zero cost but were then modified to carry flame retardant.<\/p>\n
A new Cal Fire Hawk has also been added to the air attack fleet, building out the department, which is already the world\u2019s largest firefighting force. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe public can feel at ease knowing we have something this big in our back pocket,\u201d said Capt. Sotelo<\/p>\n
\u201cManeuverability, the speed at which it responds, the effectiveness of this particular delivery system, and the fuel type and the fuel models we have in San Diego County, it\u2019s going to be an absolute game changer,\u201d said Capt. Baker.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RAMONA, Calif. \u2014 The Hercules HC130 has only been in service for a few days and already it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[144457,6980,144456,49640,144458,74,84,76,75,144149],"class_list":["post-354353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-byan-baker","tag-cal-fire","tag-fire-retardant","tag-hercules","tag-oscar-sotelo","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sorrento-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354353","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=354353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}