Water drops for wildfires in California are essential for containing and extinguishing fires

Firefighters in California are battling historic blazes from the sky using a variety of efficient and specialized aircraft that drop water and fire retardant Los Angeles.

The state fleet includes tactical aircraft, air tankers and helicopters. They all have specific roles and abilities, but work together as a unit to fight the fires that have been raging since Tuesday and took 10 lives and burned tens of thousands of hectares.

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 airfields and 11 heliports across the state that can reach most fires within about 20 minutes.

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Tactical aircraft often guide tanker aircraft, with the former providing instructions and coordinates to tankers and firefighters on the ground. According to Reuters, most of Cal Fire’s tactical aircraft are North American twin-turboprop Rockwell OV-10 multi-role aircraft that served with the US Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force until the 1990s.

Cal Fire’s fleet of tankers then drops the fire retardant onto the terrain below.

The Grumman S-2T tanker, with its two turboprop engines, is the agency’s workhorse and can hold about 1,200 gallons of fire retardant. Cal Fire also operates the larger C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop aircraft, which can drop about 3,000 gallons per load.

Cal Fire owns 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 that hang below the craft to extinguish the flames.

John Mixson, retired US Coast Guard The commander of a search and rescue helicopter told Fox News Digital that the buckets, known as bambi buckets, can drop water precisely.

“They can get to any lake or reservoir, and they can drop the bucket into the water and then precisely deliver their payload. So it’s a little more accurate than a fixed wing, but it’s a little less in volume or suppressant or water,” Mixson said.

“Helicopters can carry enough water to put out a fire, of course, 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 as little as 70 gallons, some over 2,000 gallon.”

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Two Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper turboprop aircraft have also been deployed to battle the deadly inferno.

The Pentagon said Friday that two C-130 Hercules military aircraft equipped with a fire suppression system are now on the scene, Military.com reports.

Six more C-130s are expected to be ready by Sunday. Some aircraft had to be retrofitted with firefighting systems because they were being used for cargo. The fires came outside the traditional fire season.

The scooper planes fill by descending into still water and breaking the water’s surface to fill their tanks. Then they release water to extinguish the flames and repeat the process until they need to refuel.

The Super Scoopers used to be filled with salt water from the Pacific Ocean, although this is quite rare and usually avoided because it can damage equipment, infrastructure and wildlife, said Frank Papalia, a former New York City Fire Department lieutenant and fire safety expert at Global Security Group, told Fox News Digital.

Fresh water is preferred whenever possible as the salt content is corrosive and can damage equipment such as hoses and pumps.

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“In this case, your city is burning to the ground, so using 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 require a thorough cleaning afterwards.

Fire retardant is not cast directly on fires. Instead, the chemical is released ahead of the fire, directing its flow or slowing its progress and giving ground crews a chance to control or extinguish it. Retardants can also be released to protect homes or important sites and to keep access roads open.

The substance is usually made of a mixture water, fertilizer, thickener and red dye. The red color is added so firefighters can see the retardant against the landscape.

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The pilots who operate these aircraft are known as aerial firefighting pilots or water bombers.

Mixon says the pilots come from a variety of backgrounds, but many have previously served in the military.

They usually have to undergo special training on their type of aircraft to handle their unique capabilities and systems. Most firefighting pilots already 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 involves accumulating between 1,500 and 4,000 hours of helicopter flight time as a pilot in command (PIC), the pilot responsible for the safety and operation of the aircraft.

The flight hours equip aspiring pilots with vital knowledge of aircraft systems, mission training and fire behaviour, and candidates need to 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.

Working hours are similar for future fixed-wing aircraft pilots.

“All the crews are extremely well trained specifically for the specialized mission,” Mixson said. “This is not a secondary mission for Cal Fire people or any of the DOD or Forest Service firefighters. Just like the U.S. Coast Guard, they are very, very specialized in what they do.

“It’s very dangerous, very challenging, but they’re also very, very highly trained, unique to a particular task.”

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One of the most obvious dangers is low altitude over hilly terrain in high wind conditions, which is what they’re struggling with now, Mixson said.

Mixson noted that those crews also have to avoid other aircraft, terrain and everyday hazards like radio towers through the smoke.

Strong Santa Ana winds prevented firefighting aircraft from being dispatched earlier this week due to safety risks.

Meanwhile, the drone hit one of the Canadian Super Scoopersalso. The impact left a fist-sized hole in the water, causing the craft’s wing to fall off. There are no reports of injuries. Cal Fire said it expects the plane to be back in the air by Monday.

Reuters contributed to this report.