15
Apr
2026
Helicopters spent 66% of their time traveling to get water instead of fighting the fire due to empty reservoirs.
If the reservoir had the water in it, the helicopters, these $17 million helicopters that Newsom loves to do the photo shoots in front of, how fast they are, would have had to fly. Less than 30 seconds from the origin of the fire again when the winds were fine for six hours in the initial thing. But instead, those helicopters had to fly all the way to Malibu to Pepperdine College and all the way to Encino to get the water for the helicopters to fly all the way back to where the fire was next door to where the empty reservoir is. So they spent 66% of their time not fighting the fire going to get the water.