[jyl]

If a full time firefighter costs $80K/yr including benefits (I think that is way low when you include pension, disability, overtime), then each such is equivalent to 80 hours operation of the helicopter. Depends on how many paid firefighters you eliminate and how much the aircraft are used. I suppose you also need to make sure that the airmobile fire fighters are only responding to fires, not to medical situations. Can't scramble the helicopter squad just because granny's chest hurts . . .