Horton Blazes Trail As CAL FIRE's First Female Chopper Pilot
CHINO (CBSLA.com) — When lives are on the line and homes are in danger, Desiree Horton swoops into action.
Horton is a helicopter pilot for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – CAL FIRE — in San Bernardino. She is the first and only woman to fly for the agency.
"At an early age, I was hooked … fascinated me, piqued my interest," Horton told CBS2's Tom Wait. "For me, it's exciting to know that we're going to go out there and make a difference."
Her job is one of the most unique and high-pressure in the Southland.
"It's an honor," Horton said. "It's been a long road to get to where I am today.
"I feel like I won the career lottery," she added. "I've been flying for 24 years, and I've been flying for CAL FIRE for almost two years now. This is my second season with CAL FIRE."
Horton's job isn't just to pilot the chopper. She has to fill a tank with water and then drop it with laser precision. Take the Colby Fire earlier this year — every second counted — Horton needed to unload thousands of gallons of water in the right spot, and if she missed, dozens of homes could have burned.
"Every drop is different 'cause you have to correct for wind and depending on the terrain and how close you can get to needing what you have to get that water on," Horton said. "Every time you make a drop, you always have to kind of predict where that water's going to go — and sometimes we miss."
Horton takes the pressures of her job in stride and doesn't have time to think about being a trailblazer. But she acknowledges there have been some surprised faces.
"Anywhere we go. We show up at an airport or we land at a helibase on a large fire, people are always looking for the guy on the crew that's the pilot," she said. "I guess I don't look like the pilot. I don't carry that persona."
Getting a job with CAL FIRE is no easy task — for men or women. Horton worked a number of piloting jobs first, including a job flying a news chopper for CBS.
"I loved being able to cover that and bring the story to people's homes, but I wanted to be down there in the action, so that was always tough for me to fly news when I knew my passion was to do fire," Horton said. "But in order to get into fire, I had to make the sacrifices where I had to basically leave SoCal. I had to fly out of state on fire contracts for many years, to get the experience with CAL FIRE. A lot of paying your dues."
Horton says there isn't any one fire that stands out for her — each one is a challenge but the goal is always the same — protecting people and their homes. CAL FIRE says it wants more women like Horton, but finding them isn't easy.
"As an example, we've seen our numbers fall off for female applicants," CAL FIRE Capt. Liz Brown said. "We had a thousand applicants, and we had about 10 females apply."
So for now, Horton will fly solo as the only CAL FIRE female pilot, but she and the department will continue to push for more diversity.
"We need women. CAL FIRE supports women," Brown said. "But again women aren't applying. We absolutely want to encourage women to apply."
Horton, meanwhile, lets her ability as a chopper pilot speak for her.
"I just see that I do my job just as good as anyone else and the spotlight will possibly me on me because I stand out more because I am a female, so I just have to make sure I'm on my game, and I'm doing things the right way," she said.
