Maybe its an AW139 thing, wide-body, piss-poor utility visibility, and a couple of guys obviously out of their element in confined/unprepared sites. Compensated for by overactive, though productive, CRM. A single-pilot bush guy with an AStar would just have gone in, landed, and left, humming "the high and the mighty". Gordy has mentioned before it is somewhat a "kalifornia" thing with multiple government agencies with their own fleets (this one was LA County Fire - Air Ops) criss-crossing over each other, where out of state the fire is co-ordinated by gov/state, but helicopters are contracted experienced utility operators. You won't substitute experience with training. Was anybody else straining their eyes looking for guy wires?