A national armada of firefighting aircraft was brought to Southern California last week to fight the worst wildfires there in modern history, but were having mixed success because of the difficult conditions. Types ran from military C-130s, U.S. Forest Service Douglas DC-4s and Lockheed P-3s, down to county Bell Jet-Ranger helicopters. Fire threatened the FAA's terminal radar approach control (Tracon) facility for the region, the busiest one in the nation. It was evacuated for two days, causing a major disruption in air traffic in Southern California (see story p. 26). The fires that started on Oct. 21-26 ran in a 200-mi. intermittent arc from northwest of Los Angeles to east of San Diego. There were about 10 distinct command centers involving local, state and federal authorities. Aircraft were one of the easiest assets to share among the commands because of their mobility. The size and intensity of the fire hampered coordination. In the first few days, "the firefighting was terribly disorganized, in a defensive mode, with no fire-lines per se," said Mike F. Padilla, chief of aviation for the California Dept. of Forestry (CDF). In that period, "the incident teams that plan fighting couldn't move to meet each other," he said. The CDF was using its Beechcraft King Air to ferry people.
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机译：上周，一支全国性的消防飞机舰队被带到南加州，以扑灭现代历史上最严重的野火，但由于条件困难，取得了好坏参半的结果。类型从军用C-130，美国森林服务商道格拉斯DC-4和洛克希德P-3到县贝尔贝尔·朗格直升飞机。火灾威胁到该地区FAA的终端雷达进近控制（Tracon）设施，这是美国最繁忙的设施。它被疏散了两天，导致南加州的空中交通受到严重干扰（见故事第26页）。 10月21日至26日开始的大火持续200英里。从洛杉矶西北部到圣地亚哥东部的间歇弧。大约有10个不同的指挥中心，涉及地方，州和联邦当局。飞机因其机动性而成为司令部之间最容易共享的资产之一。火势的大小和强度阻碍了协调。加州林业部（CDF）航空局长迈克·帕迪拉（Mike F. Padilla）说：“在最初的几天里，“消防以一种防御性的方式彻底地混乱了起来，本质上没有消防线。”他说：“在那个时期，计划战斗的事件小组无法相互见面。” CDF正在使用Beechcraft King Air运送人员。
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