California firefighters are battling historic fires from the air using a variety of effective and specialized aircraft that dump water and fire retardant over the sky. Los Angeles.
The state’s fleet includes tactical aircraft, air tankers and helicopters. They all have specific roles and capabilities, but are working together as a unit to fight the fires that have been raging since Tuesday have claimed 10 lives and burned tens of thousands of hectares.
According to Cal Fire’s website, the fleet of more than 60 aircraft and helicopters is the largest fleet of aerial firefighting equipment owned by the department in the world. The fleet operates from 14 airfields and 11 helicopter bases across the state, which can reach most fires in about 20 minutes.
A Super Scooper aircraft 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)
Tactical aircraft often lead tanker aircraft, with the first aircraft providing directions and coordinates to the tankers and firefighters on the ground. According to Reuters, most of Cal Fire’s tactical aircraft are North American Rockwell OV-10 twin-turboprop, multi-mission aircraft that served with the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force until the 1990s.
Cal Fire’s fleet of tankers then drops fire retardant material onto the terrain below.
The Grumman S-2T tanker, with its twin turboprop engines, is the agency’s workhorse and can hold approximately 3,000 gallons of fire retardant material. Cal Fire also operates larger C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop aircraft, which can dump approximately 3,000 gallons per load.
Cal Fire owns a fleet of helicopters, including Bell UH-1H Super Hueys and Sikorsky S70i Black Hawk helicopters. These helicopters can each carry water in buckets that hang beneath the aircraft to extinguish the flames.
John Mixson, a retiree US Coast Guard The commander of the helicopter search and rescue aircraft told Fox News Digital that the buckets, known as bambi buckets, can drop water accurately.
“They can get to any lake or reservoir, and they can lower the bucket into the water and then deliver their payload accurately. So it’s a little bit more accurate than the fixed wing, but it’s a little bit less in the amount of either suppressor or water,” Mixson said.
“The helicopters can of course carry enough water to extinguish fires, depending on the size of the fire. They can also saturate the ground to prevent the fire from spreading. The buckets vary in size due to the capacity of the helicopter carrying them , some only 70-ish gallons, some over 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 have also been deployed to combat the deadly infernos.
The Pentagon said Friday that two military C-130 Hercules aircraft equipped with a fire suppression system are now on the scene, according to Military.com.
Six more C-130 aircraft are expected to be ready by Sunday. Some aircraft had to be converted with fire-fighting systems because they were used for cargo purposes. The fires occur outside the traditional firefighting season.
The scooper aircraft refill by descending to calm waters and skimming the surface to load their tanks. They then release the water to put out a fire and repeat the process until they need to refuel.
Super Scoopers have loaded saltwater from the Pacific Ocean, although this is quite rare and typically avoided because it can damage equipment, infrastructure and wildlife, Frank Papalia, a former New York City Fire Department lieutenant and a fire safety expert at Global Security Group, told Fox News Digital.
Freshwater is preferred whenever possible because the salinity is corrosive and can damage equipment such as hoses and pumps.
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Planes scoop water from the ocean to extinguish the Palisades Fire in the mountains, January 9, 2025. (Sandy Hooper/Imagn)
“In this case, your city burns to the ground, so using the salt water isn’t that bad,” he told Fox News Digital.
Additionally, fire hydrants do not use salt water because they are not corrosion resistant, but fire trucks can use salt water. They just have to be close enough to get it and clean it thoroughly afterwards.
No fire retardant is dumped directly onto it the fires. Instead, the chemical is dropped in front of a fire, determining its course or slowing its advance, giving ground crews a chance to control or extinguish the fire. Retardants can also be released to protect homes or important locations and keep access roads open.
The substance usually consists of a mixture of water, fertilizer, a thickener and red food coloring. The red dye is added so firefighters can see the retardant against the landscape.
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The pilots who man these aircraft are known as aerial firefighting pilots or water bomber pilots.
Mixon says pilots come from different backgrounds, but many have previously served in the military.
They typically must undergo specific training on their respective aircraft type to handle their unique capabilities and systems. Most firefighting pilots have years of flying experience before they ever take to the air in a firefighting aircraft.
According to Hillsboro Aero Academy, an Oregon-based flight school, becoming a helicopter pilot means accumulating between 1,500 and 4,000 hours of helicopter flight time as a pilot in command (PIC), a pilot responsible for the safety and operation of an aircraft.
The flight hours provide aspiring pilots with essential knowledge about aircraft systems, mission training and fire behavior, and candidates must prove they can 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 knowledge of how fires spread and how to contain them using aircraft.
A tanker falls slowing as the Palisades Fire grows in the hills of Topanga, California, January 9, 2025. (David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images)
The hours are similar for future pilots of fixed-wing aircraft.
“The crews are all extremely highly trained specifically for the specialized mission,” Mixson said. “This is not a secondary mission for the Cal Fire people or for any of the DOD or Forest Service firefighters. Like the US Coast Guard, they are very specialized in what they do.
“It’s very dangerous, very challenging, but they are also very, very well trained, unique to the specific task.”
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One of the most noticeable dangers is the low altitude over hilly terrain in high winds, and that’s what they’re battling now, Mixson said.
Mixson pointed out that the smoke also requires these crews to avoid other aircraft, terrain and everyday hazards such as radio towers.
Strong Santa Ana winds prevented firefighting aircraft from being deployed earlier this week due to safety risks.
Meanwhile, a drone crashed into one of the Canadian Super Scoopersat. The impact left a hole the size of a fist in the water, causing the plane’s wing to fall. No injuries have been reported. Cal Fire said it expects the plane to be back in the air Monday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
