On the second day of the Marin Fire contract to base a helicopter fire attack asset at Gnoss Field, Marin County Fire dispatched it to the Alamere Fire, a vegetation fire on the Coast Trail near Bolinas.
At about 3pm on Tuesday, July 11, aerial fire fighting assets were called in from CalFire in Santa Rosa with a fire commander and two tankers, CalFire’s Firehawk helicopter from Boggs Mountain near Middletown, and Marin Fire’s N606PJ from Gnoss Field.
The Marin Fire helicopter was first on scene but coordinated with CalFire. The Marin Fire helicopter arrived on scene within 7 minutes, and the CalFire FireHawk from Boggs Mountain arrived 16 minutes later. Following standard practice, the tankers were directed to lay down red fire retardant that helps control the advance of the fire, while the helicopters came in later and lower to drop water at the direction of the fire command to suppress the fire.
Contacts at Marin Fire expressed satisfaction that our local helicopter provided rapid and effective air attack service, especially in an area that was difficult for ground crews to reach. The fire event lasted about 2 hours and was reported to be less than 5 acres in size.