The San Diego Fire Department currently operates two helicopters out of Montgomery airfield: this 2017 built Firehawk plus one Bell 412 (with a 2nd on order as of March 2024) can be dispatched for SAR and firesuppressing duties. A 1980 built Bell 212 was also operated till 2023, when technical issues grounded the helicopter. The SDFD's original intend was to aquire three Firehawks, but increase in cost lead to the decision to operate a mixed fleet.

N281SD was built in 1980 and has seen service with Heliservicio in Mexico as XA-SZD till early 1996. It continued with Air Logistics as N24HS, just to be registered in Mexico again as XA-AAC sometimes later. Became C-FTXU with Eagle Copters Maintenance in March 2004 and from November 2005 started to serve with it's current operator SDFD as N800DM. It appears to have been re-registered to N281SD on January 14, 2020, just a few days before very friendly staff at this SDFD Air Operations base did let me take a picture of this beautiful bird.

This brandnew civilian Blackhawk is the first of three destined for the San Diego Fire Department and is based at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport near San Diego.