Just in time for fire season (maybe), the US Forest Service announced today that "it will permit agency helicopters to attack wildfires at night in Southern California, a significant policy shift." The Forest Service was criticized for not using helicopters on the first night of the 2009 Station Fire, which eventually ravaged 250 square miles; they'd abandoned the tactic in the eighties after a collision. The night-flying will start "no later than next June" with one contractor helicopter. [AP]
Filed under: