Back in February, I wrote a column about turf wars between the Sheriff and Fire departments.

Well, as of today (Wednesday, July 23) they're heating up and, as I predicted back then, it's all about air ops.

Read James Burger's story on what went down in the Supes today.

MY COLUMN FROM FEBRUARY (Note: I bolded a couple of particularly prophetic portions)

I’ve been hearing rumblings for some time about turf battles between the Kern County Fire and Sheriff’s departments over search and rescue.

Huh?

Search and rescue? Hey! That could be me someday. I don’t want the people who are supposed to be haulin’ my behind out of the river or off a mountain squabbling over who’s in charge.

When I asked Chief Dennis Thompson and Sheriff Donny Youngblood, they acknowledged it was true.

But, they both said, they’re working on it. In fact, they’re going to put together a group of their top people to focus on communications between the agencies.

I might find that reassuring — except they already have an agreement about river rescues that spells out exactly who gets called first and who’s in charge.

Still, problems have persisted.

At a drowning in Lake Isabella last summer where the victim had been under water for more than half an hour, the fire department helicopter suddenly arrived. No one from the Sheriff’s department knew it was coming. On occasion, both the Sheriff’s helicopter and Fire’s have been called and neither knew the other was coming. Danger! Danger!

During a river rescue where Fire’s helicopter was called, it hovered unused for more than five hours, even having to refuel once, awaiting instructions while a man clung to a rock in the water. Finally, as the sun was setting, Search and Rescue asked Fire to hoist the victim to safety.

If they don’t figure this out and soon, someone’s going to get hurt, maybe even killed.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, the departments work great together. But not always on search and rescue. (Chief Thompson was quick to point out two searches over President’s Day weekend in which the agencies worked extremely well together, saving a stranded hiker and off-roader in two separate incidents. “That’s the way we want it to work every time,” Thompson said.)

Both Thompson and Youngblood stressed that they have a very strong working relationship.

In general, however, other fire personnel feel the sheriff’s department leaves them out of the loop and needlessly endangers the public by not enlisting their help and  equipment. And they worry the sheriff is angling to take over air operations for the entire county.

Sheriff’s staffers feel Fire is butting in when help isn’t needed, creating confusion and needlessly increasing costs. And they fear Fire is on a quest to take over search and rescue.

Friction over search and rescue isn’t new, but tensions seemed to escalate after the fire department got a new helicopter with hoist and night vision capabilities.

Why not use that resource for river rescues, missing ATV riders or downed planes, many in Fire ask? Makes sense to me. Believe me, if I were in any of those situations I’d want everyone called out — Fire, Sheriff’s, heck, get Mayor Hall out of bed and slap some binoculars in his hands.

Sheriff Youngblood had a slightly more restrained approach.

You can’t just stampede out the door with good intentions.

The Sheriff’s department, he said, needs to plan and coordinate the effort so everyone knows his job, for the safety of the missing person and rescuers. Youngblood has more than 200 volunteers who train in everything from mine rescues to river rescues. His officers work with the Civil Air Patrol, which has night vision capabilities of its own and come July, the department will have its own helicopter with the same bells and whistles as the Fire department.

And, he added, the sheriff’s department does call in Fire — when needed.

“If they can rescue someone before we get there, great,” Youngblood said. “It’s about saving lives.”

Once the sheriff’s department is on scene, though, they are in charge; their responsibility is set by Kern County charter.

Fire staffers I talked to were totally cool with the sheriff being in charge, that’s not their beef. They want to be called more often.

OK, everyone sounds like they want to play nice. So what’s the problem?

I hate to think it’s the usual “Ps” — power, politics and posturing. But people close to the situation tell me those, in fact, are the true culprits.

While Youngblood said he absolutely has no interest in taking over all air operations for Kern (as is the situation in Ventura County), others pointed out the new Huey ordered by the Sheriff will have firefighting capabilities and Youngblood offered to let Fire use it.

That may sound like an olive branch, but it is also being seen by some as a step on the road to consolidation of air operations, which I think would be a bad idea.

I talked with folks in Ventura County where the Sheriff is in charge of air ops and Fire is clearly second on the priority list for helicopter use. We must keep operations separate here so neither agency has to wait for permission to use a helicopter when there’s an emergency.

And while Chief Thompson told me search and rescue absolutely is the purview of the sheriff, people in his own department insist Kern would do better to model Los Angeles or other counties where Fire is a partner in search and rescue.

The two supervisors whose districts are most likely to need search and rescue, Jon McQuiston and Don Maben, both told me they see no reason to change the status quo: Sheriff keeps search and rescue and both agencies keep control over their own aircraft.

I totally agree when it comes to aircraft, though I’m not sure about search and rescue.

That’s something for those with far more expertise to sort out.

But I know this for sure: Someone will get hurt if Fire and the sheriff’s department don’t work this out, and soon.

Lois Henry’s column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. E-mail her at lhenry@bakersfield.com or call her at 395-7373.