By Mary O’KEEFE

The SuperScoopers are officially on the job in Los Angeles County as of Tuesday. For 27 years SuperScoopers have arrived from Quebec to help LA County firefighters during the state’s busy wildfire season.

Los Angeles County Supervisor – Fifth District Kathryn Barger, Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Chief Daryl Osby and Anne-Catherine Briand-Fortin, director of public affairs and government relations of Quebec in Los Angeles, presented the SuperScoopers to the press on Wednesday.

“It is truly an honor for us to welcome, for the 27th year, the SuperScoopers to Los Angeles County,” Barger said. “Just a few weeks ago in Los Angeles County firefighters partnering with the National Forest Service were battling a 31,000-acre blaze in the Angeles National Forest. [The fire] swept through the Lake Hughes community quickly and aggressively. The Lake Fire wreaked havoc with extreme heat of temperatures as high as 111 degrees [Fahrenheit] on extra dry terrain from the result of little rain this winter.”

The two Quebec SuperScoopers add their water dropping capability to the permanent fleet of 10 LACoFD helicopters.

“[The SuperScoopers] bring extra muscle when we need it most,” Barger added.

The Canadair CL-415 SuperScoopers have a maximum capacity of 1,600 gallons of water and they can also do foam drops. There are two pilots and the fixed wing airplane have a five-minute start-up to lift-off time.

The cost to lease the SuperScoopers is $3 million; LA County has given the LACoFD a budget of $4 million. If they are needed beyond December 2020 and the lease goes over budget the LA County Board of Supervisors will have to approve that expenditure, Osby said.

He added firefighters have seen several major fires already this year.

“We have hundreds of firefighters in northern California,” he added.

There are several fires burning presently in northern California, primarily due to lightening strikes igniting dry vegetation.

“Sixty firefighters left Quebec to [go to] northern California to fight active fires,” Briand-Fortin said. “It is already, unfortunately, a devastating fire season here in California.”

“We are coming to the end of a hot dry summer and we are expecting another heat wave this weekend with triple digit temperatures,” Osby said. “Unfortunately we do a long term forecasting [that shows] now through December, our projections are that temperatures will be above normal, the precipitation will be dryer than normal from October through December and we are predicting we will have more windy days.”

As of Wednesday, there is an Excessive Heat Warning for Los Angeles County from Friday to Monday.

“We will seeing record-breaking heat,” said Todd Hall, meteorologist at NOAA [National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration] in Oxnard.

The high heat is expected to bring triple digits to the Crescenta Valley and Glendale over the weekend. There does not seem to be relief from the heat even at the beaches where temperatures are predicted in the mid 90s.

“Anytime there is a heat wave it elevates fire potential,” he said.

It is important to prepare for and prevent wildfires. Osby shared three tips:

• Download Ready.Set.Go. The wildfire action plan that can be found at fire.lacounty.gov

• Perform proper brush clearance to allow defensible space.

• Do not fly drones around wildfires. They impact LACoFD’s ability to fly.

He also advised residents to evacuate when they are told to evacuate by law enforcement during wildfires.

  Mary Okeefe