SANTA MARIA, Calif. - With peak fire season now here, the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base is ramping its operations in order to be fully prepared and ready to respond when the need arrives.
"May 15th was our actual opening date," said Miguel Quiz, Santa Maria Air Tanker Base Manager. "We've been open, ready to fight fire since then. We've had a few fires here and there locally, mostly supporting fires on the Sequoia and we have a few aircraft here at the base now."
There is currently a small fleet of aircraft stationed at the tanker base that is located at the Santa Maria Jet Center, on the south end of the Santa Maria Public Airport.
"We have four aircraft on base," said Quiz. "We have the lead plane. We have an air attack. We have tanker four zero used for dropping retardant and we have a hell of tanker type one helicopter."
Quiz added staffing at the base has also doubled since mid-May, including personnel who operated and maintain the stationed aircraft.
"We are ready to go," said tanker pilot David Dicky. "Bags are packed. Plane is uncorked for the most part. It'll take us two minutes to get those engine covers off and then clearance to take off."
While Tuesday was a quiet day at the air tanker base, staffing was still hard at work all day long planning and preparing for when the next fire needs the support the base provides.
"When the call comes in, when the call comes in for initial attack, we're ready to move," said Quiz. "We've trained so much the when the moment comes, everybody has a duty to do. Everybody has a role to play. The folks really take a pride initiative in what they're doing around here to make things happen. We understand that what we're doing here at the base and the readiness that we have at the base impacts the firefighters out there on the ground because they're the ones out there waiting for retardant, so the faster we are, the more ready we are, the more training we do, we're able to respond in a safe way."
Santa Maria Air Tanker Base ramping up operations for peak fire season News Channel 3-12.
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