In July of 2011 CalFire reduced the manpower on their engines from four firefighters to three. In addition they cancelled their exclusive contract with a DC-10 air tanker retrofitted for retardant drops.
The US Forest Service has also seen a reduction in air tankers, from a fleet of 44 in '02 to only 11 'exclusive use' contracts in '12. While air tankers are used for dropping retardant on federal lands,
research has shown that half of the retardant dropped in the US is
dropped in California.
Numbers of orders for air tankers unfilled increased in 2011 approximately 28% as the rate of available tankers decreased.
In addition the Air Attack base in Fresno was closed effective July 1, 2012.
Following on the heels of the deep cuts, property owners in SRA areas will be seeing a tax bill for fire services in the mail as early as the first week of August 2012.
