DE LUZ — The De Luz Volunteer Fire Department began training for the upcoming fire season on March 8 with helicopter ground filling operations from fire engines.

Twenty De Luz firefighters, with four of their engines and water tender, drilled with the crew of San Diego Sheriff Department’s Fire Copter 10.

Each of them refilled the aircraft’s 375-gallon tank with water from an apparatus, simulating a forward ground filling heli-pad at fires in which no other water source is available.

The training was realistic with the aircraft’s blades turning, and it lifting off the pad to cond...