A drone that authorities say was flying in restricted airspace on Jan. 9 put a fist-sized hole in the wing of a Super Scooper ...

The scooper planes refill by descending to calm waters and skimming the water’s surface ... a secondary mission for the Cal Fire folks or any of the DOD or Forest Service firefighting folks.

a $30 million amphibious plane. It’s capable of scooping 1,600 gallons of water from a lake in 12 seconds and dropping it on a fire minutes later. It can release water from as low as 100 feet.

Aerial firefighting companies supplement federal and state firefighting fleets, and their services are in high demand.

they can prevent combustion of the fuel that is available to a blaze and they make it more difficult for a fire to spread than water alone. Planes drop fire retardant on homes in California Here ...

during the Boyles Fire in September.Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The United States Forest Service said on Thursday that nine large retardant-spraying planes, as well as 20 water-dropping ...

Aerial firefighters have always been a critical line of defense against raging wildfires. But increasingly extreme blazes and a horrific accident have many wondering how we’ll adapt to fires of the ...

The water can also be mixed with a foam concentrate to make its drops more efficient. What distinguishes the CL-415 from other fire-attacking planes ... with the U.S. Forest Service’s Modular ...

A water-dropping ... was one of two such planes aiding in firefighting efforts. As of Thursday night, firefighters had managed to contain the nearly 20,000-acre fire by 14%. The fire has so ...

These planes and helicopters have a simple job to do: Collect as much water ... Fire Center, they classify firefighting helicopters into Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. According to the Forest Service ...

Firefighters battling the deadly wildfires that raced through the Los Angeles area in January 2025 have been hampered by a limited supply of freshwater. So, when the winds are calm enough, skilled ...