It's hard to live in the sierra foothills and not know the throaty sound of the Firefighting aircraft located at the Grass valley Air Attack Base. The personnel at the Cal Fire operation are specifically trained to handle a very difficult and frequently dangerous job.  Battalion Fire Chief Don Cockrum is in the charge of the operation, and is one of the air attack officers at the base. He says the pilots who fly these aircraft have a lot of flight time before they're ever considered for these jobs, and are some of the best there are.

“One of ours here, a pilot that flies tankers 8 and 9, he’s been here for 18 years, but he spent 26 years as a Naval Aviator on active duty.”

Chief Cockrum, as an air attack officer, observes the fire from an "air tactical platform" aircraft above the fire, coordinating the activities of aircraft fighting the fire with crews on the ground.

“The ideal air attack officer has a pretty large background of wild land fire control both on the ground, that makes an ideal one, knowing fire behavior and different burning conditions and being able to assist the ground commander in making his plan.”

Chief Cockrum says there are thirteen Cal Fire air attack bases situated around the state so that aircraft can reach any fire in the state within 20 minutes.  Those aircraft include 22 air tankers, 13 air tactical aircraft and helicopters at nine helattack bases.