By Stephen Witt, Los Angeles County Politics
As Los Angeles County enters another potentially devastating fire season, a capacity crisis is quietly unfolding at the heart of the county’s aerial firefighting operation — and LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the elected official most responsible for addressing it, has yet to offer a solution.
The startling revelation comes against the backdrop of the controversial 184-acre Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, which primarily serves about 600 privately owned single-engine aircraft.
Adjacent to Whiteman is the approximately 5.3-acre Barton Heliport — the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s (LACoFD) primary aviation hub, which carries its own independent Federal Aviation Administration designation. Barton serves as the nerve center for the county’s aerial firefighting operations across a 4,000-square-mile service area.
“Barton Heliport and Whiteman Airport are separate facilities and should not be viewed as interdependent. The future of Barton Heliport is not predicated on the future of Whiteman Airport,” said Constance Farrell, Horvath’s Communications Director.
“Barton Heliport is not large enough to accommodate the Fire Department’s operational needs, including the addition of two Sikorsky Firehawks funded through voter-approved Measure E,” she added.
Sikorsky Firehawk helicopters are widely considered the gold standard of aerial firefighting. Built on the same platform as the military’s Black Hawk helicopter, the S-70i Firehawk carries a 1,000-gallon belly-mounted water tank that can be refilled in under one minute via a retractable snorkel. LACoFD Fire Chief Anthony Marrone has called the Firehawk “the cornerstone of our aerial firefighting capability for more than two decades.”
It can also be rapidly reconfigured in flight for hoist rescues, medical transport, and crew deployment — earning it a reputation as the all-in-one workhorse of modern wildfire suppression.
LACoFD Public Information Officer Fire Captain Aaron Katon previously confirmed to LACP that Barton serves as the department’s central hub for all aircraft, crew deployments, and maintenance operations countywide.
Each day, three aircraft deploy from Barton to key operational regions, including the Santa Monica Mountains and Malibu, the Antelope Valley and Lancaster-Palmdale corridor, and the eastern portion of the county at Brackett Field in Pomona, Katon said.
“Helicopter flight crews complete daily shift exchanges at Barton Heliport before deploying strategically throughout Los Angeles County,” Katon said. “At the conclusion of each 24-hour operational shift, aircraft return to Barton Heliport for scheduled maintenance, inspections, refueling, and crew exchange.”
The department currently operates a fleet of nine aircraft out of Barton — five Sikorsky Firehawks and three Bell 412 helicopters — with two additional Firehawks on order under the voter-approved Measure E contract announced in October 2025. Those two incoming aircraft are what Horvath’s office now confirms Barton cannot accommodate in its current configuration.
What the county intends to do about that capacity shortfall remains publicly unanswered. Farrell did not address where the additional aircraft would be based or whether the county has examined expanding Barton Heliport’s footprint to meet the department’s growing operational needs.
Meanwhile, the county’s ongoing $2.1 million Trifiletti consulting study examining Whiteman Airport’s future has not publicly addressed Barton Heliport as a standalone facility or examined what an expanded heliport footprint could accommodate.
A verbal presentation on Whiteman Airport safety improvements before the Board of Supervisors is anticipated in the coming weeks, with a Board discussion on the airport’s future scheduled for June 30.
