California firefighters fight historic blazes from the sky using a variety of efficient and specialized aircraft that drop water and fire retardants overhead. Los Angeles.
The state's fleet includes tactical aircraft, air tankers and helicopters. They each have specific roles and capabilities but are working together as one unit to fight the fires that have been burning since Tuesday and It claimed the lives of 10 people Tens of thousands of acres were burned.
According to Cal Fire's website, the fleet of more than 60 aircraft and helicopters makes it the largest department-owned fleet of aerial firefighting equipment in the world. Its fleet operates from 14 airports and 11 helicopter bases across the state and can reach most fires within about 20 minutes.
A Super Scooper plane drops water on the Palisades Fire on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, California. (Brian Van Der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Tactical aircraft often fly tanker planes, with the former providing directions and coordinates to tankers and firefighters on the ground. According to Reuters, most of Cal Fire's tactical aircraft are North American Rockwell OV-10 twin-turboprop aircraft, multirole aircraft that served with the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force until the 1990s.
Cal Fire's fleet of oil tankers then drops fire retardant on the terrain below.
The Grumman S-2T tanker, equipped with twin turboprop engines, is the agency's workhorse and can carry about 1,200 gallons of fire retardant. Cal Fire also operates a larger C-130 Hercules aircraft with four turboprop engines, which can offload about 3,000 gallons per load.
Cal Fire has a fleet of helicopters, including Bell UH-1H Super Hueys and Sikorsky S70i Black Hawk helicopters. Each of these helicopters can carry water in buckets suspended below the aircraft to put out fires.
John Mixson, retired US Coast Guard The buckets, known as Bambi buckets, can drop water accurately, a search and rescue helicopter pilot told Fox News Digital.
“They can get into any lake or reservoir, be able to lower the bucket into the water and then determine their payload delivery. So, it's a little more accurate than a fixed wing, but it's a little less quantitative. It's either retarder or water,” Mixon said.
“Helicopters can carry enough water to extinguish fires, of course, depending on the size of the fire. They can also saturate the ground to prevent the fire from spreading. Buckets range in size due to the capacity of the helicopter they carry, some only 70 gallons, some more than 2,000 gallons.”
Water is dropped by helicopter on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles on Thursday, January 9, 2025. (Ethan Swope/AP)
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Two Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper turboprop aircraft were also deployed to battle the deadly inferno.
The Pentagon said Friday that two C-130 Hercules military aircraft equipped with the fire control system are now at the scene, according to Military.com.
Six more C-130s are expected to be ready by Sunday. Some aircraft had to be re-equipped with fire control systems because they were being used for cargo purposes. The fires broke out outside the traditional firefighting season.
the Scoop planes They refill by descending into calm water and scraping the surface of the water to load their tanks. They then release water to put out the fire and repeat the process until they need to refuel.
The Super Scoopers were loaded with salt water from the Pacific Ocean, though this is fairly rare and typically avoided because it can damage equipment, infrastructure and wildlife, says Frank Papalia, a former lieutenant with the New York City Fire Department and a fire safety expert. In Global Security. The group, she told Fox News Digital.
It is preferable to use fresh water, whenever possible, because the salt content is corrosive and can damage equipment such as hoses and pumps.
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Airplanes draw water from the ocean to extinguish the Palisades Fire in the mountains on January 9, 2025. (Sandy Hopper/Imagine)
“In this case, your city is burning to the ground, so using salt water is not that bad,” he told Fox News Digital.
In addition, fire hydrants do not use salt water because it is not resistant to corrosion, but fire trucks can use salt water. They just have to be close enough to get it and require a thorough cleaning afterwards.
Do not throw fire retardants directly onto it Fires. Instead, the chemical is dropped in front of the fire, directing its path or slowing its progress and giving the ground crew a chance to control or extinguish it. Retarders can also be released to protect homes or important sites and to keep access roads open.
The material is usually made of a mixture of water, Fertilizer, thickening agent and red dye. The red dye is added so firefighters can see the retardant on the landscape.
Pilots who operate these aircraft are known as aerial firefighting pilots, or water bombers.
Mixon says the pilots come from different backgrounds, but many previously served in the military.
They usually have to undergo training specific to their type of aircraft to handle their unique capabilities and systems. Most aerial firefighting pilots have years of flying experience before they take to the skies in a firefighting aircraft.
According to Hillsboro Aero Academy, an Oregon-based flight school, becoming a helicopter pilot involves accumulating 1,500 to 4,000 hours of helicopter flight time as a pilot in command (PIC), a pilot responsible for the safety and operation of the aircraft.
Flying hours provide aspiring pilots with vital knowledge about aircraft systems, mission training and fire behaviour, and candidates need to prove their ability to operate firefighting helicopters in challenging conditions such as mountainous terrain. They also need technical skills to work closely with ground crews and other aircraft during missions and know how fires spread and how to contain them using aircraft.
A tanker drops retardant as the Palisades Fire grows in the hills of Topanga, California, January 9, 2025. (David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images)
Work hours are similar for prospective fixed-wing aircraft pilots.
“All crews are extremely highly trained specifically for the specialized mission,” Mixon said. “This is not a secondary mission for Cal Fire firefighters or any of the Department of Defense or Forest Service firefighters. Just like the U.S. Coast Guard, they are very specialized at what they do.”
“It's very dangerous, very difficult, but they're also very highly, uniquely trained for a specific mission.”
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One of the most obvious dangers is low altitude over mountainous terrain in high wind conditions, which is what they are struggling with now, Mixon said.
Through the smoke, these crews must also avoid other aircraft, terrain and everyday hazards like radio towers, Mixon noted.
Strong Santa Ana winds prevented the deployment of firefighting aircraft earlier this week due to safety risks.
Meanwhile, a drone It collided with one of the Canadian Super Scoopersalso. The impact created a fist-sized hole in the water, causing the plane's wing to fall off. No injuries were reported. Cal Fire said it expects the plane to be back in the air by Monday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
