CA County to build new “helopod” for firefighting helicopters
By Rina Nakano
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RANCHO SAN CLEMENTE, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Rancho San Clemente residents are celebrating the groundbreaking of a new “helopod,” which will help water-dropping helicopters quickly refill and return to dousing wildfires in the area.
Vonne Barnes is the area’s master board president. She represents 14 homeowners associations and apartment complexes in the area.
“We have 1803 accounts,” Barnes said. “That’s over 5,000 people.”
Firefighters strategically chose the hill it sits on. The Orange County Fire Authority said the area has all of the ingredients for a fire, including vegetation, wind and topography.
The helopod is a 3,700-gallon tank that will be connected to the city of San Clemente’s water system. It will fill up automatically during wildfires.
“The closest body of water would be over the hills over here,” said Cheyne Maule, an OCFA division chief. “There’s a golf course with a pond at Bella Collina Golf Course. And, the other one would be Trampas Reservoir, which is off Ortega. It’s a haul.”
OCFA said helopods in Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo were instrumental in extinguishing the Rancho Fire last July.
“The helicopters were able to rotate in and out and extinguish that fire in record time,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said.
Foley’s office funded $100,000 towards the project, which should be done by the end of June.
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