The Ramona Air Attack Base reopened Monday following a months-long construction project that paves the way for a new tanker base at the fire station.<\/p>\n
Local leaders gathered to celebrate the county’s new resources \u2014 including Cal Fire’s fourth of seven planned C-130H air tankers that will be used statewide \u2014 a reconstructed tarmac and fire retardant reloading bays. <\/p>\n
“The Ramona Air Attack Base has long served as a cornerstone of aerial firefighting in San Diego County,” Cal Fire Unit Chief Tony Mecham said. “With these upgrades now complete, the base is fully operational and positioned as a critical hub in Cal Fire’s expanding aviation program.”<\/p>\n
The upgrades replace an aging facility with a modern, state-of-the-art fire retardant mixing plant designed to enhance efficiency and support the increased size and operational requirements of the new aircraft, Cal Fire said.<\/p>\n
The tanker is a crucial piece of Cal Fire’s firefighting resources because it can drop large fire-retardant loads on a wildfire. It’s being added to Cal Fire’s current fleet of three aircraft, one air attack platform and two air tankers that are based in Ramona.<\/p>\n
Cal Fire San Diego Capt. Robert Johnson\u00a0said the facility will include a station that can hold up to 75,000 gallons of retardant, which is enough to refill the C-130 nearly 18 times.<\/p>\n
The Ramona Air Attack Base was built in 1957 and is also home to an S-70 Cal Fire Hawk helicopter that’s equipped with a 1,000-gallon water tank, hoist rescue capability, and the ability to transport helicopter crews into remote terrain.<\/p>\n
The completion of the project marks a significant milestone, strengthening wildfire response across the county and regionally, according to fire officials.<\/p>\n
Cal Fire Director Joe Tyler, San Diego County Fire Chief Tony Mecham and County Board of Supervisors Chair Tara Lawson-Remer attended the event.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Coast Guard transferred the C-130H aircraft to Cal Fire via the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ramona Air Attack Base reopened Monday following a months-long construction project that paves the way for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6980,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-405798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-cal-fire","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405798","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=405798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}