Fox Field on "Station" Fire

William J. Fox Field Lancaster California was center stage for the U.S. Forestry service fight on the Morris and Station fires for the last three weeks. Under contract with the Forestry Service these aircrews have flown hundreds of missions from sun-up to sun-down knocking down a conflagration of great magnitude.

 Two L.A. county firemen lost their lives outrunning the fire near Acton California. The Lancaster airfield has been the focal point of retired Navy submarine hunters of years past. These planes the Neptune P-2 and Orion P-3 both built by the Lockheed Martin Corp. have been converted to water/retardant dropping fire bombers.

            In their belly’s 2-3 thousand gallons of Retardant can be dropped at a time and with a turn around time of ten minutes the fire bombers in unison can drop continuously every few minutes on a given target. Fox Field is a dedicated fire fighting site ready for aircraft from around the country to take on  the California wild fires

The P-2 a product of WWII was first flown in 1945!! The P-3 was built in 1969 out of the Cold War Era. These remarkable aircraft earn their keep today providing an invaluable service to any Fire ravaged state in the U.S. “Fox Field” is a sleepy airport until fire season bringing it life with the aerial assets of the U.S. Forestry service.

            At 160,000 acres plus the fire has been contained to date at 60%.  The reward now is at $150,000 for information leading to the conviction of the arsonist setting the biggest fire in L.A. modern history. This fire’s  incredible acreage was not a product of the infamous Santa Ana winds that wreck havoc on southern California every fire season, but the location of very mountainous terrain and 50 years plus of dense plant growth dried out from the drought.