SONORA, Calif. — A costly burglary at a Tuolumne County helitack base has left the rural community without some firefighting, aviation and forestry equipment.
Law enforcement officials are searching for the burglar or burglars accused of breaking into the Bald Mountain Helitak Base. The heliport, located within the Stanislaus National Forest, is roughly 20 miles northeast of the town of Sonora.
Officials with the U.S. Forest Service said in a Facebook post that the burglars broke into the base between 12 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 a.m. Sunday and stole various pieces of firefighting, aviation and forestry equipment valued between $40,000 to $50,000.
“Fighting fire is a difficult enough challenge without the loss of our equipment,” said Jason Kuiken, Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor in a statement. “Obviously we will replace the equipment, but this is not something we have a budget for, thus funds will have to come from different program areas meaning the degrading of other services provided by forest staff."
The burglary also resulted in vandalism to federal facilities. Forest officials say they will now have to repair broken windows and damaged fencing and conduct a general clean-up of the buildings which they described as "ransacked."
The incident follows break-ins in the past six months at the Forest Supervisor’s Office in Sonora, the Mi-Wok District Office and the Summit District Office, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
In at least one of those cases, catalytic converters were allegedly stolen from cars. Those with information on any of the recent break-ins are asked to call the Stanislaus National Forest Law Enforcement at (530) 906-2087.
Helitack crews are often used during the initial response to wildfires. Crew members are transported by helicopter to wildfire sites to build fire lines using hand tools, chain saws and other equipment.
When fires are not active, crew members perform other duties such as tree falling, delivering people and equipment and firing operations.
The Bald Mountain Helictack base is the only U.S. Forest Service helitack base that services the Stanislaus National Forest.
Watch more from ABC10: The Hotshots | California Wildfires: The New Normal
