Photo: Aaron Comstock
By Jack Dejong
MAY AVIATION UPDATE:
Air Rescue 307 came out of its 100 hour inspection in March, and with AR306 also
being online, the aviation unit is in a nice position of having both rescue helicopters up,
running and with low maintenance hours. However, with warmer weather and many kids
on spring break, we have already started eating into those hours. We are starting to see
more people venturing into the watering holes in our mountains, such as Deep Creek and
Bonita Falls, and this leads to lost hikers, people getting hurt and the need to rescue
people from these and similar locations.
This is a good opportunity to recognize the work that the patrol
ships (the 40 King units) do on these incidents. Quite often 40
King will start the search and rescue incident by locating the
victim. Once located they can (1) direct lost individuals to a trail
The San Bernardino County Sheriff Department
staff and County Fire “brass” have also been
working with our federal and state cooperators
to solidify the working agreements for rotor
wing support. Look for an increased presence
from Sheriff’s Aviation on vegetation fires as
we support the County Fire’s mission!
that leads out, (2) land offsite and pick up a victim with a minor
injury and transport to ground units or (3) request Air Rescue and
coordinate the rescue from the air. If Air Rescue is offline, the
patrol ships also have a hoist and can affect a rescue if needed.
These well trained pilots and flight tactical officers are a vital piece
of many rescue incidents.
Some notable incidents that our fire crews
responded to over the last few months are:
March 22 – AR307 assisted E53 on a traffic collision on the I-15;
two patients transported.
March 24 – AR307 responded to Redlands for an “active shooter”
call that turned into a hostage situation; one victim transported.
April 6 – AR306 and one 40 King helicopter responded to the
Photo: Jeremy Kern
Topock/Pirate Fire in Needles; both ships logged 120 water drops
on the fire.
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FIREWIRE • Spring 2016
Spring 2016 • FIREWIRE
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