2026 Fresno Air Attack Base Tour  

By Jon Brothers

Saturday October 3rd was a typical early Fall day in Fresno County. Relatively clear skies, light winds of 5-10 mph, and a seasonal temperature into the upper 90s. All in all, more Summer-like than not. Yet, it was the perfect sorta day for a group of 20 VBACers and family members, to venture out on a field trip to a rather unique local site, which provides a highly essential service to the citizens of California. Certainly it was a perfect day to pay a visit to this particular place. For decades, many a land dweller have seen various firefighting aircraft in the skies above Fresno and Clovis. Today, we go “Up Close and Personal.”

The Fresno Air Attack Base is a joint Cal Fire and U.S. Forest ServIce facility, located at the Fresno-Yosemite International Airport. This base is dedicated to provide wildland aerial firefighting operations to Central California and beyond. Originally established in 1955 at Fresno’s Chandler Field, it moved to its current airport location (formerly Hammer Field) in 1960.

The Air Attack Base, in its present form, provides initial attack aerial fire fighting resources for Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties. Equipped with five reloading pits and four 25,000 gallon retardant storage tanks, the operation is capable of reloading a large Type 1 air tanker in as little as 7-10 minutes. The base maintains a Cal Fire OV-10 Bronco tactical aircraft (Air Attack 430) and a USFS Rockwell Aero Commander 690A (Air Attack 15), each providing a Chief Officer’s platform for air tanker and helicopter coordination at the fire scene. In addition, a Cal Fire C-130 Hercules air tanker is available to provide the delivery of 4000 gallons of fire retardant on the fire. The USFS regularly moves contracted air tankers and helicopters into the base, as local fire activities may dictate.

Cal Fire maintains the world’s largest civilian firefighting fleet. Through a series of 11 helitack and 13 air attack bases, spread throughout California, Cal Fire operates over 70 fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The air bases are geographically located to meet the Department’s operational objective of arriving at a given fire location within 20 minutes, and to keep 95% of all fires contained to 10 acres or less. These bases may be staffed with similar aircraft (as Fresno), to include the air tactical OV-10 Bronco, the mission support King Air A200, the retardant dropping C-130 Hercules (4000 gallons) and Grumman S2T (1200 gallons), as well as the water dropping Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk (1000 gallons) and the Bell UH-1H Super Huey (360 gallon tank, 324 gallon bucket) helicopters.

Spending the greater part of nearly 3 hours at the air base, members were treated to a fantastic tour, provided by Cal Fire Fire Captain Mike Harris (relief Air Attack Officer). His knowledge of the job, the aircraft, and the Department’s mission, along with his candid sense of humor, served to make for one of the most fantastic, interactive experiences one might be afforded to enjoy. We were able to get up close and personal with his aircraft (the Ov-10 Bronco) as well as Cal Fire Tanker 122 (C-130 Hercules), and Tanker 105 (McDonnell Douglas

MD-87) a USFS contract air tanker operated by Erickson Aero Tanker, capable of dropping 3000 gallons of retardant.

Few will ever experience climbing onboard one of these great aerial firefighting works of art. Without hesitation, flight crew members explained the individual aircraft capabilities and the simple complexity of the retardant delivery system(s), in a manner with which a fifth grader would understand. This author, for one, was grateful for that. The pilots and flight engineers went above and beyond to share the interworking of their specific aircraft. A few members (kids and adults alike) sat in cockpit seats, providing an opportunity to get their hands on the controls, and get a first hand feel for what these brave and talented professionals might experience while airborne and engaged in firefighting from the air.

All said, everyone had a fantastic time on this very different VBAC outing. My thanks to Cal Fire Fresno/Kings Unit Chief Dustin Hail for his support of our attendance, to Battalion Chief Alex Sanchez for coordinating the tour for us, to Captain Mike Harris for his very informational tour, to retardant mixing base manager Josh Hamilton for his in depth presentation regarding the mixing operations and reload base capabilities, and to the rest of the Cal Fire staff for hosting us. Moreover, a huge thank you to the crew members of Tankers 105 and 122 for their exceptional hospitality and presentation of their aircraft. This was truly a most memorable experience.

For more information on Cal Fire’s aviation management program, please visit www.fire.ca.gov, and look under Fire Protection for the Aviation Program.