Late last month, San Diego County leaders and fire officials celebrated a vote to add a much-needed, nighttime firefighting helicopter to the county’s fleet.
Firefighting agencies in the county have about a dozen helicopters to fight daytime fires. But access to night-flying ones has been limited, as most are older models without those capabilities.
The county isn’t buying the highly desirable Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk from its manufacturer or the United States Army, for which the aircraft was developed. It’s purchasing it from one of the largest investor-owned utilities in California: San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE).
Although some electric utilities have leased helicopters to help fight wildfires, including SDGE, it's relatively uncommon for them to own aerial firefighting assets.
Five years ago, SDGE bought a Firehawk as part of its Wildfire Mitigation Plan, the utility’s blueprint for minimizing wildfire and public safety power shutoffs “to the greatest extent possible.”
But the chopper hasn’t received federal certification. So, it was never deployed. The aircraft has been waiting for a green light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at a modification facility in Denver, Colorado.
Rather than continue waiting for certification, SDGE officials said they decided to sell it to the county. The deal between the utility company and the county includes a plan that may lead to charges to ratepayers.
The helicopter sale has shed light on a lesser-known firefighting program that ratepayers fund for the power company to operate.
SDGE officials say firefighting assets are one of the ways the company protects the community from wildfires.
"For those who kind of say, 'Hey, stay in your own lane,' a lot of it is protecting the community from wildfires, is all of our lanes," said Brian D'Agostino, SDGE's vice president of wildfire and climate science.
Even small fires can damage the electric system. So, by "partnering with the county to keep fires as small as possible, you end up spending a lot less money on having to rebuild the system," D’Agostino said.
But ratepayer advocates question the true impact of the utility’s firefighting expenses on ratepayers and whether the investment of a state-of-the-art helicopter is justified as a mitigation expense.
"It's a stretch to say, we're going to buy a helicopter for ourselves just to back up other agencies who have a primary responsibility to fight fires because we're good citizens," said Bill Powers, an engineer and advocate for public power in San Diego.
'The day was gonna come'
SDGE developed an aviation firefighting program more than a decade ago, leasing helicopters to assist fire agencies in the region.
Its investments came after the October 2007 Witch Creek Fire. Santa Ana winds whipped the utility’s power lines, creating electrical arcing and burning particles that led to the wildfire’s ignition.
It has two leased Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk heli-tanks, which are capable of carrying 1,000 gallons of water. The company also leased an air crane from 2009 to 2024. The utility uses contracted staff to operate the helicopters, which are available exclusively for fires year-round to Cal Fire and the counties of San Diego and Orange through agreements with each.
“After the 2007 wildfires, SDGE started working very closely with Cal Fire and the county,” D’Agostino said. “Saying, ‘Hey, we will get the largest firefighting helicopter that is available anywhere in the world. It was an air tanker, and we will bring it here and we will keep it in San Diego.”
Then, in 2018, California experienced the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in the state's history, according to Cal Fire. The Camp Fire alone killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 19,000 structures in Butte County in Northern California. Cal Fire investigators confirmed that Pacific Gas and Electric’s transmission lines ignited the blaze.
At the time, Cal Fire could not fight fires from the air at night because its fleet of Vietnam-era helicopters lacked nighttime flying capabilities. That inability made dousing wildfires much more difficult. The agency began modernizing its air fleet with Firehawks.
SDGE decided it would be the agency to bring what would have been the first Firehawk to the county, specifically for its advanced night vision systems that allow firefighters to fly in low-light conditions.
“(Night flying) was not a capability that San Diego had at the time, but everybody knew that the day was gonna come that we really needed it,” D’Agostino said.
In the time that the company was planning to purchase one, the city of San Diego became the first in the county in 2018 to obtain a Firehawk. Its helicopter can also respond to fires outside city limits.
But D’Agostino said bringing another Firehawk would ensure better coverage of the region.
SDGE’s justification for its aviation program is referenced in its Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
“Fire agencies could divert local aerial resources to fight wildfires outside of the service territory, leaving the service territory with limited or no aerial firefighting response capabilities,” the plan said. “To mitigate this risk, the aviation firefighting program serves as a wildfire suppression resource that is always available in the region.”
"So, we went and ordered (the Firehawk),” D’Agostino said. “That was the catalyst of SDGE saying, ‘OK, we're gonna go do this for the community.’”
The company said it purchased the Firehawk for $31.4 million from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, using shareholder funds with the intent of using it by 2026. United Rotorcraft was contracted to outfit the helicopter.
All Firehawks start as new or used Sikorsky Blackhawks and are converted into an all-in-one firefighting aircraft by adding various features, including a 1,000-gallon external tank and upgraded electronic systems in the cockpit.
Regulatory filings with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) show the Firehawk referenced in SDGE’s capital account. D’Agostino said the company initially sought to recover costs through electricity rates. But because the aircraft was never deployed and put into operations, the chopper had "no impact on rates."
"It's not until you take full delivery and put something into operations that the ratepayers start to pay for it," he said.
The Firehawk was never deployed because the FAA never approved its certification that would allow the power company to operate the aircraft, according to SDGE. The FAA said it does not comment on specific certification projects.
SDGE said it was best for Cal Fire to own and operate the helicopter, given that, as a state agency, it does not typically need to go through all of the same FAA certification processes a private company faces.
“It’s better for our community to get this out there fighting fires, keeping our community safe, rather than us sitting here, waiting for a certification,” D’Agostino said.
A home with the county and Cal Fire
Utility and government officials said the sale of the Firehawk was a win-win deal: the county needed a night flying helicopter and Cal Fire had the firefighters. SDGE had the right aircraft.
Last month, the county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $38 million deal using bond funding: $32.7 million to buy the Firehawk from SDGE and $5.3 million to finish outfitting the helicopter to Cal Fire’s standards.
Cal Fire agreed to contribute $5.5 million annually to staff and maintain the aircraft. And SDGE agreed to give the county $3.3 million annually through 2027 and up to $5 million yearly through 2035. The county said it will use those funds for debt financing, insurance and operational costs.
SDGE officials said the utility will break even on the sale to the county. But if the CPUC approves, the company would be allowed to recoup the funds it agreed to give the county through rates charged to customers over time.
D’Agostino said ratepayers have always helped “pay for the aviation piece” within the Wildfire Mitigation Plan. The power company projects, in its 2026-28 plan, spending $325,739 next year and $388,255 in 2028. To date, the company reports investing about $6 billion in projects like aviation, drones, undergrounding power lines, a weather center and brush clearing, to prevent wildfires. A September report by the CPUC said that one of the three primary drivers of increased electricity rates is wildfire-related expenses.
Return on investment
Ratepayer advocates assert that investments for-profit utilities make to fight fires should be left to fire agencies.
“The mitigation program that ratepayers are paying for it's supposed to be to minimize or eliminate ignition sources, not to deal with fires after they have occurred,” said Powers, an energy expert who has challenged SDGE’s rate increase before the CPUC. “It's just not a function of an electric utility.”
Powers and other ratepayer advocates also argue that buying a firefighting aircraft is an example of a larger problem: state regulators allowing excessive rates of return to shareholders at customers’ expense.
When utilities build infrastructure, like poles and wires, or invest in projects, like mitigating wildfires, they use money from shareholders and banks. Utilities can recover the cost of these investments plus a profit from ratepayers. State regulators decide what percentage the companies can keep as profit, also known as “return on equity.”
State law says that power companies should spend in the most cost-effective manner to protect customers. But to make a profit, utilities have an incentive to overspend on capital projects "because the more they spend, the more profits they make," said Mark Ellis, a former California utility executive from San Diego. He authored the paper, “Rate of Return Equals Cost of Capital,”
SDGE recovers its investments and receives a return on equity of 10.23%. The CPUC is expected to consider next month a proposal to drop it to 9.88%.
The CPUC ordered electrical corporations to develop wildfire mitigation plans in response to Senate Bill 901, which became law in 2018 and establishes a framework for the commission to hold companies accountable for their efforts. The law also allows regulators to assess what expenses are reasonable to recover in rates.
Powers acknowledges the benefit and importance of having firefighting assets. One of them helped save his home from a fire a few years ago, he said, but that chopper was of the city of San Diego’s Fire-Rescue Department.
“That’s part of their job; they fight fires,” Powers said.
SDGE said its firefighting helicopters are an integral part of the 12 choppers available in the region. The utility's Blackhawks dropped more than 36,000 gallons of water in January and about 1 million gallons on fires in 2024. Earlier this month, they also assisted in extinguishing the Scissors Fire in San Diego's backcountry that burned 68 acres.
In its Wildfire Mitigation Plan, SDGE said its aviation program reduces utility-associated wildfires by about 4%.
Bolstering nighttime firefighting
The twin-engine Firehawk won't be ready until next fall, when SDGE originally intended it to be ready for deployment.
But it's an aircraft that Cal Fire and County Fire officials said they are thrilled to have in-house because of the limited access to one. The only other twin-engine chopper the county has belongs to the Sheriff's Department, but it’s not used for nighttime firefighting.
“This helicopter will backup and add at night that capability that we don't have now,” said Cal Fire and County Fire Chief Tony Mecham.
As of this summer, Cal Fire has 16 Firehawks throughout the state, but none in San Diego County. They fly in when needed. Mecham said the state didn't budget to have one in San Diego because "we had that historical program with our Sheriff's partners."
The Firehawk is compatible with night vision goggles. It also has an infrared system that lets pilots find flames and people in dark and smoky conditions. It can also carry 1,000 gallons of water —three times as much as its predecessors.
Mecham said the Firehawk will be especially crucial for fires that start in the afternoon, just like the Cedar Fire did 22 years ago last month.
“This is going to allow us to get up in the evening, that first afternoon, drop water when the humidity comes up and the temperature drops, and hopefully keep that fire from becoming a major fire on day two,” he said.
Until the Firehawk arrives, Cal Fire said it will make a reserve Firehawk available in the spring.
