A non-human hero in the fight against wildfires

Posted by anthonykuo , Sep, 2009 @ 12:18 pm

California firefighters are caught in a battle against 8 fires and still growing through southern California as of August 31.

L .A. County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said at a press conference yesterday that “This is a very difficult time for L.A. County Fire Department and the men and women that serve day in and day out”. 6,600 people were ordered to evacuate and more than 12,000 homes were under fire threat.

The heroism of the people fighting the wildfires is definitely admirable, but I wanted to point out a non-human hero which is playing a critical role in the firefighting scene – the L.A. Fire Dept.‘s Sky Crane Tanker Fire Helicopter.

The Tanker looks like a gigantic wasp and provides for an effective way to fight and extinguish fire at high elevation cannot be reached by typical firefighting system. It is a heavy-lifting helicopter with a large tank that can be filled with water or flame retardants, and a nozzle that can perform a variety of sprays, depending on the situation.

Check out a video of it refilling its tank below.