Each season, as part of the Going to Bat for San Diego initiative, we join the San Diego Padres to honor outstanding organizations in San Diego that support regional safety and emergency preparedness.

This year, prior to the Padres' win over the Nationals during the pre-game ceremony, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Foundation, volunteers with the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and Firefighter Aid were recognized. These well-deserving organizations were singled out on July 6 for their dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion, and keeping San Diego safe.

Much to the delight of fans the Padres' pregame ceremony also included a spectacular flyover by SkyMaverick.

SkyMaverick helps protect San Diego, one drop at a time

SkyMaverick is stationed year-round at Gillespie Field in El Cajon. Since this is the case, he can be dispatched by Cal FIRE to put fires in San Diego or Orange County when needed. The firefighting helicopter can be airborne within 15 minutes, takes only 45 seconds to refill its tank and holds a capacity of 2,650 gallons of water or fire suppressant. (This is the equivalent of the payload of five fire engines). 

Since its inception in 2010, SkyMaverick has performed 1,976 total drops -- resulting in 2,037,595 total gallons dispensed!

The firefighting helicopter is so popular, it even has its own Twitter channel - @SkyMaverickSDGE - where you can get up updates on its whereabouts.

The power of partnership

The partnership between our company and San Diego’s hometown team was formed out of a vision of doing more to build a better community and this is the fourth season coming together to help support organizations doing such important work. 

The SD Fire Rescue Foundation’s mission is to provide enhanced equipment, training, technology, and community education resources. Firefighter Aid is dedicated to providing charitable assistance to Firefighters in crisis and to promote awareness of firefighters' health and safety issues. And CERT Response Teams are the dedicated volunteers trained in basic disaster response that professional responders rely on during disaster situations.

And we are proud to have presented each of these local organizations with a grant to help support their ongoing training and readiness efforts. 

To learn more about our partnerships and emergency preparedness click here.