Due to the frequency and severity of wildfires in California, the state has elected to establish its own aerial firefighting force rather than rely solely on contract or national resources.

A total of 18 CAL FIRE personnel oversee the program, with an additional 130 contract employees providing mechanical, pilot and management services.

The possibility of using aircraft for fighting wildland fires in California was first proposed in 1931 and again in the late 1940s after World War II.

In 1953, the Nolta brothers of Willows, California proposed using their agriculture spray planes for fighting brush and grass fires.

Also during this period, several enterprising aviation companies had been converting World War II Grumman TBM Avengers for air tanker use.

The N3Ns and Stearmans were World War II biplanes used for pilot training and converted for use as agricultural spray planes.

Among these were Beechcraft 18 (Twin Beech), Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated PBY Catalina, and Grumman F7F Tigercat.

The air tanker program continued to expand until finally in the early 1970s, a total of 14 TBMs, five F7Fs, one PBY and one B-17 comprised the CAL FIRE fleet.

By 1970, concerns with maintainability and accidents occurring in the TBM fleet led to an evaluation of the Grumman S-2 Tracker as a new generation air tanker.

In 2019, CAL FIRE added 7 C-130H airtankers to the fleet, which will only become fully operation in 2023 because of the extensive modifications required to convert them to air tankers.

In 1974, CAL FIRE acquired 20 retired USAF Cessna O-2 observation aircraft from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

These O-2s had been forward air control aircraft in Vietnam, had been shipped back to the United States in containers and were disassembled and on pallets when they arrived at CAL FIRE's Fresno maintenance facility.

The helicopter began playing an increasing role in the CAL FIRE's Initial Attack strategy during the late 70s.

Water bucket operations over ever-increasing populated regions in the urban interface areas of eastern Riverside County had been causing a concern.

An accidental drop of a water bucket could cause catastrophic results, while a fixed tank reduced the exposure.

As the 1991 lease agreement expiration date with the US Air Force rapidly approached, CAL FIRE started a search for a replacement that ultimately resulted in the acquisition in 1989 of the UH-1H.

Both the F model and the Super Huey maintenance programs were developed by CAL FIRE using the most restrictive overhaul/replacement criteria of the military or Bell Helicopter.

DynCorp was awarded the contract in 2000 and continued to maintain the Super Hueys at Mather and later at McClellan Airfield in North Highlands, California.

The Firehawk airframe was built by PZL Mielec in Poland and outfitted for firefighting by United Rotorcraft in Englewood, Colorado.

Crews also report that while the Firehawk is physically larger, it has more maneuverability, allowing it to access more and smaller landing zones than the Super Huey.

[6] CDF/Cal Fire S2 Fatal Airtanker Accidents, 1973–2014 This article contains material that originally came from a State of California website Archived 2007-10-25 at the Wayback Machine.