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Everything you need to know about the water drops in California during wildfires
Firefighters in California are battling the historic fires from the sky using a variety of effective and specialized aircraft that dump water and fire retardants over Los Angeles.
The state’s fleet includes tactical planes, air tankers, and helicopters. All have specific roles and capabilities but work together as a unit to combat the fires that have been raging since Tuesday. The fires have claimed 10 lives and torched tens of thousands of acres.
According to Cal Fire’s website, the fleet’s more than 60 planes and helicopters make it the largest department-owned fleet of aerial firefighting equipment in the world. Its fleet operates from 14 airfields and 11 helicopter bases across the state that can reach most fires within about 20 minutes.
A Super Scooper plane drops water on the Palisades Fire Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Tactical planes often lead tanker planes, with the former providing directions and coordinates to the tankers and firefighters on the ground. According to Reuters, most of Cal Fire’s tactical planes 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 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 larger C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop aircraft, which can dump 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. These helicopters can each carry water in buckets hanging below the aircraft to douse the flames.
John Mixson, a retired U.S. Coast Guard helicopter search and rescue aircraft commander, told Fox News Digital that the buckets, known as bambi buckets, can accurately drop water.
“They can get to any lake or reservoir, and they’re able to lower the bucket down into the water and then pinpoint deliver their payload. So, it’s a little more accurate than the fixed wing, but it’s a little less in quantity of either suppressant or water,” Mixson said.
“The helicopters can carry enough water to put out fires, of course, depending on the size of the fire. They also can saturate the ground to prevent fire from spreading. The buckets range in size due to the capacity of the helicopter carrying them, some only 70-ish gallons, some more than 2,000 gallons.”
Water is dropped by helicopter on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Ethan Swope/AP)
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Two Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper turboprop planes have also been deployed to battle the deadly infernos.
The Pentagon said Friday that two military C-130 Hercules aircraft equipped with a firefighting system are now on the scene, according to Military.com.
Six more C-130 airplanes are expected to be ready by Sunday. Some of the aircraft had to be refitted with firefighting systems because they were being used for cargo purposes. The fires have come outside the traditional firefighting season.
The scooper planes refill by descending to calm waters and skimming the water’s surface to load their tanks. They then release the water to douse a blaze and repeat the process until they need to refuel.
Super Scoopers have been loading up with saltwater from the Pacific Ocean, although this is fairly 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, whenever possible, is preferred because salt content is corrosive and can damage equipment like hoses and pumps.
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Airplanes scoop water from the ocean to douse the Palisades Fire in the mountains Jan. 9, 2025. (Sandy Hooper/Imagn)
“In this case, your city is burning to the ground, so using the saltwater is not that bad,” he told Fox News Digital.
Additionally, fire hydrants don’t use saltwater because they are not corrosion-resistant, but firetrucks can use saltwater. They just have to be close enough to get it and require thorough cleaning afterward.
Fire retardant isn’t dumped directly onto the fires. Instead, the chemical is dropped in front of a fire, directing its course or slowing its advance 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 typically made of a mixture of water, fertilizer, a thickening agent and red dye. 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 waterbombers.
Mixon says pilots are from different backgrounds, but many previously served in the military.
They typically have to undergo specific training on their respective type of aircraft to handle their unique capabilities and systems. Most aerial firefighting pilots already have years of experience flying before they ever take to the skies 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), a pilot responsible for the safety and operation of an aircraft.
The flight hours equip aspiring pilots with vital knowledge about aircraft systems, mission training and fire behavior, 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.
A tanker drops retardant as the Palisades Fire grows in the hills of Topanga, Calif., Jan. 9, 2025. (David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images)
The hours are similar for prospective fixed-wing aircraft pilots.
“The crews are all extremely highly trained specifically for the specialized mission,” Mixson said. “This isn’t a secondary mission for the Cal Fire folks or any of the DOD or Forest Service firefighting folks. Just like the U.S. Coast Guard, they are very, very specialized in what they do.
“It is very hazardous, very challenging, but they’re also very, very highly trained, uniquely to the specific task.”
One of the most apparent dangers is the low altitude above hilly terrain in high wind conditions, which is what they’re battling now, Mixson said.
Mixson pointed out that, through the smoke, these crews must also avoid other aircraft, terrain and everyday hazards such as radio towers.
The strong Santa Ana winds prevented firefighting aircraft from being deployed earlier this week due to safety risks.
Meanwhile, a drone smashed into one of the Canadian Super Scoopers, too. The impact left a fist-sized hole in the water, dropping the aircraft’s wing. No injuries have been reported. Cal Fire said it expects the plane to be back in the air by Monday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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RAWLINS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man wanted for alleged rape and domestic violence in Utah was arrested in Wyoming.
He is “behind bars thanks to the work of eagle-eyed troopers with the Wyoming Highway Patrol,” WHP said on social media.
Troopers were alerted to a Be On The Look Out (BOLO) call at approximately 7 a.m. on Thursday for a suspect in a white Chrysler Seabreeze.
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Troopers in Rawlins, Wyoming, spotted the vehicle just after 8:30 a.m.
The suspect was arrested without incident and transported to the Carbon County Jail.
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WOODINVILLE — For four straight years, at least parts of Washington have been in a drought, as snowpack has failed to meet historical norms amid climate change.
This year, all of Washington is experiencing drought, after a wet winter scuttled by warmer temperatures, according to state officials.
Washington state leaders are looking for ways to deal with the ongoing water challenges, which state Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller calls “our new normal.”
A new initiative, called Washington’s Water Future, will lead roundtable discussions across the state this summer, with recommendations delivered to Gov. Bob Ferguson before the 2027 legislative session begins in January. Local and tribal governments, utilities, industry leaders, environmental groups and community organizations will be at the table.
Officials announced the effort Wednesday at King County’s Brightwater Treatment Plant near Woodinville.
“It’s clear we need to take steps to protect our water supply,” Ferguson said in a pre-recorded video. “We need secure water supplies so we can grow our economy, support our agriculture industry, protect healthy fish runs and preserve tribal resources.”
Sixkiller said the work is about whether Washington will shape the future of water in the state, or just react to it.
“Washington is a water state,” Sixkiller said. “Water shapes our landscapes, our communities, our economy, and for many a way of life passed down through generations. We all know that where there’s water, there’s life, but these days, we don’t have to look very hard to see that our relationship with water is changing.”
Climate change is causing precipitation in the winter to fall more as rain than snow, with less stored naturally in the mountains for the summer, when farms and fish are competing for the dwindling resource. This system, dependent on snowpack, is becoming less reliable, Sixkiller said.
By 2080, the Puget Sound region is expected to get less than half of its normal snowpack, with wintertime stream flows increasing by half and a corresponding drop in the summertime, the agency director said.
“The cost of inaction is already showing up in drought emergencies, flood damage, stressed salmon runs and uncertainty for communities trying to plan their future,” Sixkiller said.
Last year, the Department of Ecology took the unprecedented step to curtail surface water usage in the Yakima River Basin, where the effects of drought are more severe. The move has drawn accusations of mismanagement against the state.
In an interview, Sixkiller said it’s too soon to say whether his agency will need to do the same this year, but noted the state declared a drought earlier than usual to give water managers in the area more time to prepare.
The statewide drought declaration last month unlocked $3 million in grants to respond to the effects.
The harms already
The Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District, which serves 28,000 acres, is bracing for its canal system to “blow out” after a wildfire burned it in 2024, and subsequent flooding and debris slides further damaged it, said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.
“This is a clear example of the need to, not only plan long term, but be prepared to see that hole that we’re already in get a little bit deeper,” DeVaney said.
The low flows and higher temperatures are treacherous for Washington’s salmon. And fish hatcheries are grappling with dwindling water. The Suquamish Tribe, for example, hasn’t been able to expand a hatchery because of the lack of water, Chairman Leonard Forsman said.
Forsman, also president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, acknowledged the priorities when thinking about the future of water availability are “people and farms, and then fish habitat comes in later.”
“And we need to try to balance that,” he said.
Meanwhile, data centers the tech sector is building to support artificial intelligence and other technologies are also driving demand for water.
Some of the ideas
In responding to the state’s water needs, Sixkiller said “all solutions and all ideas are on the table.”
He was responding to a question about desalination, a process turning salt water into potable water that communities in more arid climates have turned to in addressing water shortages. Arizona, for one, is pursuing the idea. Sixkiller called the water scarcity in the American southwest a “very big red flag of what could happen here.”
The city of Lynden in Whatcom County has grown rapidly over the past 15 years, Mayor Scott Korthuis said. So the city, located along the Nooksack River, has had to find innovative approaches to securing water.
For one, the city now recycles discharged water from the local Darigold dairy plant into the river, as a source of drinking water.
The city is also working on an aquifer recharge project to take water from the river during high flows and store it underground until it’s needed later. Sixkiller cited this type of work as an idea to be explored in the Washington’s Water Future roundtable discussions.
“There are a range of untapped solutions from different areas, from different ways to store water and to recycling,” Korthuis said, noting financial, legal and regulatory obstacles.
Aging water infrastructure that will need to be replaced or upgraded provides an opportunity for innovative solutions, Sixkiller said.
King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci noted the new initiative’s acronym matches that of the World Wrestling Federation, saying there will be some “smackdowns” in these discussions. The tongue-in-cheek comment worried state Rep. Davina Duerr, D-Bothell.
“I’m afraid it’ll be a smackdown on the Legislature for funding, and whatever else,” she said.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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