When Wildfires Burn Hottest, Cal Fire Fights in the Dark

Here’s something counterintuitive: some of California’s most effective firefighting happens after sunset.

While most people think of wildfire response as a daytime operation, Cal Fire has spent recent years perfecting a different playbook. At McClellan Airfield, pilots, crews, and command staff are training hard for overnight aerial firefighting—the kind of work that happens when cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and lower fire activity create a tactical advantage that shouldn’t be wasted.

The thinking is straightforward but powerful. At night, the airspace clears out. During the day, that same patch of sky gets congested with air tankers, lead planes, helicopters, and intelligence aircraft all operating at once. Coordination becomes a nightmare. But after dark, that traffic disappears, opening a window for focused, sustained suppression work. Battalion Chief Sean Ryan put it plainly:“Because the temperatures are cooler, the humidities are higher, the fire activity is generally lower. We’re able to do a lot more good as far as fire suppression on the fire.”

The catch? Flying at night isn’t easier—it’s just different. Crews don’t gain convenience; they trade daytime visibility for night vision goggles and heightened complexity. Pilots still have to navigate terrain, avoid power lines, manage radio communications, and maintain precise spacing in an environment where mistakes compound fast. That’s why the training near Auburn matters so much.

Before the night flights began, crews conducted a daytime reconnaissance mission over a simulated fire to walk the route, identify hazards, and confirm water sources like Lake Clementine.“For us to be able to get together and train before there are actually flames, to be able to make sure that we’re operating on the same page for the airspace at night is super important,”Ryan explained.“When we actually do have the fire, everything goes smoothly.”It’s the kind of preparation that separates smooth operations from chaos when lives and homes are on the line.

This exercise has expanded significantly over recent years—moving from a smaller effort into a broader regional training that pulls in more Cal Fire aviation resources and other agencies. That scaling reflects a hard reality: California’s fire activity has reached a level that demands innovation, not just tradition. Similar trainings are happening across the state this week. The message is clear: as fire season ramps up, Cal Fire isn’t waiting for the next crisis to figure out how to fight it. They’re training now, flying at night, and building muscle memory for the moment when conditions shift and the real work begins.