Air support helps extinguish July 4 Madre Fire

As many as 11 air tankers lent essential support to ground crews working to extinguish the Madre Fire on Los Padres National Forest. USDA Forest Service photo by Andrew Madsen.

When the Madre Fire erupted early in the afternoon of July 2, firefighting personnel from California's Los Padres National Forest were on scene within 20 minutes. As additional resources raced out Highway 166, the blaze charged up the rolling hills and onto national forest lands where a strong onshore wind pushed the flames east and northeast. By the time the sun rose the following morning, more than 30,000 acres were scorched, and the fire crossed out of Los Padres and onto adjoining lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

As suppression efforts on the ground gained momentum, staff at the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base began scrambling to service incoming aircraft. A full ensemble of qualified personnel is required to safely and effectively load retardant and refuel the air tankers.

Los Padres Air Tanker Base manager Miguel Quiz said, "We were able to contact our folks, and they came through even though it was a holiday weekend."

One Very Large Air Tanker and one Large Air Tanker were already pre-positioned at the tanker base and immediately responded to the incident. Eight additional air tankers soon joined the initial attack, dropping nearly 140,000 gallons of retardant to support the firefighting forces on the ground.

The Santa Maria Air Tanker Base retardant pit provided over 500,000 gallons of Phos-Chek fire retardant in the first few days of the Madre Fire. USDA Forest Service photo by Andrew Madsen.

"When the fire is as close to the tanker base as the Madre Fire was, the turnaround times are tight," said Josh Alonzo, the air tanker base timekeeper, who noted the time it took aircraft to fly from Santa Maria to the fire and back was 29 minutes. "That's when we try and stagger refueling to avoid needing to fuel multiple aircraft at the same time." Personnel diverted smaller tankers to the Paso Robles Cal Fire tanker base to help with that issue.

On July 3, 11 aircraft worked from 11:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., delivering more than 237,000 gallons of retardant as the fire exploded to more than 50,000 acres. Over the following two days, the tanker base delivered another 174,000 gallons of retardant. By July 6, ground crews had arrested the fire's forward progress, and air support was no longer needed.

The largest wildfire of 2025 in California was eventually suppressed by brave firefighters on the frontlines. However, the air support on the incident was critical in helping slow the flame front and providing ground crews with additional aid to safely contain the Madre Fire.