The Rainbow Municipal Water Department teamed up with Cal Fire and the North County Fire Protection District to build a "heli-hydrant" in a remote area of Fallbrook.
Once it's finished, pilots can send a signal from their helicopter and fill a 5,000-gallon tank with water. They can then use that to fill their water tanks and make drops on spot fires.
The hydrant will cut down on the amount of time between drops, as pilots won't have to fly to natural water sources farther away.
The tank cost Rainbow $150,000. The water department has spent the last eight months working on the project, fast-tracking it to be ready for the coming wildfire season.
It's the only heli-hydrant in San Diego County and just the second in Southern California. Another one in Yorba Linda is already in use.
Pala Mesa Tank Site
Location: Wilt Road and Citrus Drive / 33.348611, -117.177222
https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2 ... 010'38%22W
Helicopter hydrant photos
https://www.rainbowmwd.com/rainbow-muni ... li-hydrant
https://www.villagenews.com/story/2021/ ... 66538.html
https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/ ... rth-county
Rainbow MWD Board Approves Heli-Hydrant At Pala Mesa
June 14, 2021
The Rainbow Municipal Water District will be adding a Heli-Hydrant fire protection system on its Pala Mesa site. A 5-0 Rainbow board vote May 25 added the Heli-Hydrant project to Rainbow’s capital improvement plan, appropriated $149,728 from the district’s capital reserve fund, and authorized Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy to execute the contracts required to procure and install the equipment.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/rainbo ... pala-mesa/
Poor frogs
“There's not a lot of surface water here in North County,"
"Where there is, they're small, shallow ponds that might have twigs and frogs and other things that get sucked up into the helicopter and clog it."