Police, and Fire Choppers...

[Kabloosh 7]

Do these things even work? I placed them thinking they would fly around and put out fires and fight crime but I have found that they just sat there at their respective departments so I turned them off since they are expensive.

 

I also noticed my HAZMAT trucks got lost doing something too. About a quarter mile down the road from the fire department a hazmat fire went uncontested. I also think those trucks should be unlockable from the standard fire department.

[WJ_Webhog 12]

Hi Kabloosh,

 

I once saw a fire chopper fly over one of my fires...

Other than that, I have the impression that these choppers are only useful to neighbouring city (but that's only because i rencently plopped them and never really saw them do anything).

 

Other than that, my hazmat fire truck is not even coming out of its garage even though I have such fires all the time. The result is I keep having industrial explosions.

 

Sad.

[TuPhat 27]

Funny thing.  I shutdown my local fire shop in my developing city for I had a huge fire station in my neighbouring city.   So I set the neighbouring city to send over 2 of each trucks and the heli for coverage.

 

So after awhile I see a fire break out and waited.   And waited.  One building burning, a second.  Where is my coverage!!!

 

On the particular map, the Trade HQ building was right in the path of the helicopter trying to get to the fire, and the helicoper got stuck there.  It was faceplanted right against the Trade HQ building and couldn't get over or around the bloody thing.

 

I dozed the Trade HQ building and it proceeded to put out the fires.    It works pretty well, but it can get stuck on a building (so it seems).  

[WJ_Webhog 12]

Sad... Maxi(mum)s(adness)

[intothewrx 2]

choppers are only to help other cities and never yours

[WJ_Webhog 12]

intothewrx: i definitely saw one fire chopper estinguish some fires in my city. I don't think it came from neighbouring cities as I did not notice another user's icon over it.

anyhow, if this is true (that "choppers are only to help other cities and never yours"), then this is really sad...

[krannda 3]

I've seen both a fire chopper extinguish a fire and a police chopper follow criminals in my own city, so I don't think it's strictly for neighboring cities. There's probably just something wrong with the AI, just like the rest of the AI in this game.

[Darmok 34]

I don't know about the police helicopters, BUT fire helicopters works extremely well!
the thing is if you want them to work, and this is completely counterintuitive, you MUST
buldoze ALL firetrucks garages (except Hazmats) place the Fire dispatch tower on the Fire station

and some helicopters of course (I have 2 in a 220,000 sims city)

and THEN they will extinguish ALL fires except Hazmat fires.
 

Working very well... for a steep cost, of course, but they are not affected by traffic

[reReticulated Spline 69]

I've used both. Except the last time I build fire helicopters, the game would only send them if all fire trucks where already dispatched. I don't know if that has changed since then but it does mean shutting down your garages is nessecary for the helicopters to work.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Another piece of advice, unless you have sufficient goods production and need a huge job sink (something that hires a lot of workers) in a small space, DON'T have High Density Industry. It is best if they are put along low or medium density roads.

 

 

--Ocram

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

I also noticed my HAZMAT trucks got lost doing something too. About a quarter mile down the road from the fire department a hazmat fire went uncontested. I also think those trucks should be unlockable from the standard fire department.

 

I feel the same way.  The player is too powerful in the game right at the start able to create Hazmat-fire-prone high-density industry, but Hazmat requires upgrading a University with a specific building to unlock Hazmat. 

 

 

Another piece of advice, unless you have sufficient goods production and need a huge job sink (something that hires a lot of workers) in a small space, DON'T have High Density Industry. It is best if they are put along low or medium density roads.

 

 

I agree here. 

 

There is a frustrating aspect of this, though.  Streetcars only run on high density streets.  There are ways around this - running high density streetcar avenues perpendicular to the medium density streets/avenues the industry is on, or dezoning the industry after it is developed and before upgrading to high density avenues - but it still remains you can't really use streetcars for low and medium density industrial areas. 

[tnemelkfoo 4]

fire helicopters have worked for me, but not always. i would place an airport, build 4 helicopters at once and no fire trucks, because the fire trucks will always get dispatched first. I would then bulldoze the airport and turn off 3 of the helicopters since 1 is enough for medium density. but as time rolls on, there will come a time when my city is burning (normally when I go high density). At this point I normally have 2/3 turned on. I would then zoom to the fire station and see the helicopters sitting there. none of them are flying out. just chilling. 

 

this has happened to me in several cities and in several servers. Now I just use the fire trucks, because the helicopters don't work. 

[duckbow 3]

A few patches ago (August?), fire helicopters worked fine, but I am noticing issues now also.

 

Like what tnemelkfoo said, try turning off all fire/ hazmat truck modules and only leave helicopters on. This will force the game to dispatch the helos first! Hopefully that works for you.