Analysis: County’s $2.4 million firefighting helicopter rarely used

Jan. 27--A year after the devastating Labor Day wildfires of 2011, Travis County commissioners voted to buy a $2.4 million helicopter with a 325-gallon water tank. The purchase made Travis the only Texas county to own a helicopter specifically designed for fighting fires.

Opposing the measure, then-County Judge Sam Biscoe said the commissioners should adopt a firefighting strategy before making the multimillion-dollar investment.

"The wildfires of last year certainly were an eye-opening experience," Biscoe said. "I'm 65 years old, and it's the first time I've ever seen something like it. So, I'm sitting here wondering whether it'll be another 64 more years before we see the next one."

Almost two years later, county officials say the purchase was worthwhile, although the helicopter has been used to fight fires only a handful of times.

The retrofitted Vietnam-era UH-1 "Huey" flew 98 times in its first 21 months of service to the county, according to flight logs obtained by the American-Statesman. But only eight flights were firefighting missions; only three of those were in Travis County.

Eighty-three flights were for training, maintenance or operations; six were for public-relations events; and one was a rescue mission during the 2013 Halloween floods, according to the logs from April 2013 _ when the Huey was introduced _ to December 2014.

During the same period, the county's three other helicopters, which primarily provide medical transport in partnership with local hospitals, each went on more than 600 emergency missions. Together, they responded to more firefighting calls _ 14 _ than the firefighting helicopter did, in part because of complications with staffing the Huey.

Casey Ping, the manager of the county's STAR Flight helicopter program, said the lack of use of the new helicopter doesn't take away from its value, which is to be ready in the event of a catastrophe.

"I don't know that we necessarily had any expectations for what (flight) volume would look like," Ping said. "If you want to have it when you need it, then the only way you can confirm that is to own it."

The 2011 fire season will forever be remembered for the 34,000-acre blaze in Bastrop County that killed two people and destroyed 1,700 homes _ the largest wildfire in Texas history. But there were other fires in the area, including several in Travis County that burned 57 homes.

The effort to stop the Bastrop blaze and others across Texas sapped much of the state and federal firefighting resources that counties typically rely on to fight wildfires, Ping said. The only helicopters available for Travis residents, he said, were the county's three EC-145 medical-transport choppers, which can attach 130-gallon "Bambi Buckets" to fight fires.

During the 2012 debate over the helicopter purchase, Commissioner Ron Davis said that the $2.4 million was a worthy investment to ensure that the county is prepared.

"If the taxes have to go up just a little to pay for that assured comfort level _ that you can go to sleep at night knowing somebody would come there for me from the ground or in the air _ I can sleep on that," Davis said.

Biscoe in 2012 was joined in questioning the purchase by then-Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt, who this month replaced him as county judge. During budget hearings, Eckhardt said she believed the helicopter would help the area but did not believe county government, which is not traditionally in the firefighting business, was the appropriate entity to buy it.

"We are walking backwards into a fire mission that we don't currently have," Eckhardt said. "This is a pretty significant expansion of the STAR Flight mission, without assistance from the state and without assistance from the emergency service districts and without assistance from the other municipalities."

Eckhardt said last week that she was "satisfied that they are attempting to respond to the concerns I had."

"It does appear that the Huey has been used to good effect in its first year," she said. She pointed to its vital role in responding to the 2013 Halloween floods, when the Huey rescued 12 people.

One concern Eckhardt had in 2012 was about whether the county could develop cost-sharing or reimbursement agreements with neighboring jurisdictions that the Huey may be dispatched to. On medical runs, STAR Flight recoups costs from the patients or their insurance policies _ a revenue stream that usually pays for more than half of STAR Flight's $6 million budget.

Danny Hobby, county executive for emergency services, told Eckhardt in 2012 that his staff would pursue partnerships for the Huey. But they have proved elusive, Ping said, because of federal rules prohibiting governments from receiving compensation for flights that benefit the public, as opposed to individuals.

The county does, however, have an agreement that allows state agencies to reimburse it when borrowing the chopper on an as-needed basis to respond to emergencies outside Travis County. That agreement, which has not yet been exercised, allows the county to refuse requests when the chopper is needed within the county, Ping said.

To keep costs down, STAR Flight absorbed the operating expenses for the new chopper within its budget and did not hire any employees because of the purchase, which is one reason the Huey flies so rarely.

Unlike the medical helicopters, which are stationed at University Medical Center Brackenridge and Dell Children's Medical Center, there is not always a pilot standing by for the fourth helicopter, which stays at the county hangar on Old Manor Road. When a fire call comes in, the county sometimes has to use one of the medical helicopters to fly a pilot from one of the hospitals to the hangar, delaying the Huey's liftoff by 10 to 30 minutes, Ping said. Other times, it makes more sense to respond immediately with one of the medical transports, he said.

Three of the firefighting missions the Huey went on were in Bastrop County, the same number as in Travis County. It fought one blaze in Williamson County and another in Burnet.

The six public-relations missions included demonstrations and appearances at the America's Heroes Airshow at Camp Mabry and the Steiner Ranch Concert in the Park. The most common mission type was training, accounting for 62 of the 98 flights. There were 21 maintenance and operations flights.

The main use of a firefighting helicopter is not to put out fires _ which usually requires ground crews _ but to keep a blaze contained in its critical early stages, said Mike Fisher, Bastrop County's top emergency management official. The chopper, for instance, can prevent buildings from being burned even when a fire is uncontrollable by strategically dumping water in a perimeter around them.

Another benefit, he said, is to have an eye in the sky quarterbacking the ground attack on fires that can be unpredictable and difficult to judge.

"When it is needed _ you have a wildfire threatening lives and properties _ it's right there. It can deal with a wildfire, keep it small, keep it safe," Fisher said. "All in all, we're very glad that they have that asset and we're proud that we can be a recipient of it when we need it."

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