Cal Fire Tankers Leave Ukiah Airport Until Next Year
Nov. 1—Before the rain began falling Tuesday morning, much of the aircraft staffing Cal Fire's Air Attack Base in Ukiah had already been flown out for the year.
Battalion Aviation Chief Ray Taglio said that the 2022 "fixed-wing contract" expired on Monday, Oct. 31. In previous years the contract has been extended, but it wasn't this year, so the tankers and their pilots left the Ukiah airport well before Tuesday's rain.
"We were keeping an eye on the weather, and wanted to make sure the planes were out before then," said Taglio, adding that tanker pilot John Butts, a Ukiah High graduate who has flown out of the air base for the past 28 years, flew one more time last week before his retirement became official Monday.
"We had a small fire in the Annapolis area near Sea Ranch, and Butts flew Tanker 90 for his final fire-fighting flight," Taglio said. Butts flew Tanker 91 for much of his time at the base, but he flew that plane for the last time earlier in October.
Correction: Taglio also pointed out that the previous UDJ story about Butts' retirement incorrectly described where the battalion chief oversees fire-fighting operations. He does not work in a 2,500-tall tower, but he does work 2,500-feet up, just as a passenger in the seat of a plane.
And while the tankers are gone, Taglio will remain working at the Ukiah airport, as the air base there is his year-round office — an office from which he said he experienced the slowest fire year since he began working at the base in 2009.
When asked why he thought there were so few fires for Cal Fire to battle in the region this year, Taglio said his personal belief was that people were being "a lot smarter" with fire and sparks after seeing the horrific devastation caused by fires the past several years, and "we didn't have a lot of those starts," either accidental or purposeful.
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