They're using the 747, and a DC-10, an unspecified number of CL-145 Super Scoopers, the two Martin Mars, and any other air asset that they can get their hands on, including at least one GKW. CAL FIRE is probably glad to have them all.

California is getting what they deserve. You have to manage the forest, the cutting of Forest Service budgets and years of neglect is coming back to bite them in the ass.

It seems that no matter how bad these fires get, no one seems to learn that you must manage the forest or Mother Nature is going to burn you (literally).

As for air assets that 747 looks slick but how does it fair in rugged country with slot canyons and steep peaks?

I like the smaller more agile plans (only b/c I've had one soak me with retardant). That high pressure hose on the 747 looks like it would knock your thingy in the dirt hard if you got hit with it. Could be too hard of a hit to shake off quickly.

One of my favorite members of this BB put it best.

Joe, please don't hate us because we're beautiful...:p ;)


:rolleyes::rolleyes:

I have been there and done that. I have had my home threatened by 4 fires in 15 years. I have also cut lines around forest fires, eaten slurry, conducted mandatory evacuations, and seen what a forest fire can do to a neighborhood.

I feel extreme sorrow for those who have lost their home and everyone's life that is being effected by this huge fire.

But forest fires are not uncommon (especially in So Cal) and there are ways of managing the forest to help minimize the damage a fire can do. But do to lack of planning and reallocation of government funds, you all now have a huge problem on your hands that will now cost the tax payers probably north of X100 times what an effective preventive management plan would have cost.

Joe, it's OK. I was kidding. Go ahead and hate us. It's alright. We got thick skin. And we have it coming.
Sig, it's OK for them (i.e. the rest of the country) to hate us. We can take it. Think about it: we're NOT getting what we deserve. We have a lot to answer for:

Nancy Pelosi
Hollywood
Gavin Newsom
gun laws out the wazoo
The Berkeley City Council
Henry Waxman
Barbara Boxer
Oakland
Diane Watson
Diane Feinstein
Maxine Waters
Jane Harman
Antonio Villaraigosa
Jerry Brown
West Hollywood
The Raiders
Leon Panetta
San Fransisco
lots of gun laws
Tom Lantos
the freeways, all of them, after 4:15 P.M.
No On 8
47th in the Union for education
a Dem controlled state legislature


Joe, are you beginning to see why the fires don't bother me?

That and a number of other reasons is why I left that place in 1993 and haven't looked back.

- PSST You too can escape once you put your mind to it.

I am going to work on that.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09...n-supertanker/

Fahrenheit 747: World’s Biggest Fire Extinguisher Douses L.A. County

By Jason Paur September 1, 2009
The deadly fires that have blackened more than 105,000 acres around Los Angeles prompted authorities to call in the world’s largest fire extinguisher — a Boeing 747 that can drop 20,000 gallons of retardant over a swath of land three miles long.

The plane made its first-ever drop in the continental United States when fire officials summoned it to the Oak Glen fire east of Los Angeles mid day on Monday. After the successful first drop, the Supertanker was called back into action Monday evening where it made further drops on the massive Station fire north of the city which grew to more than 164 square miles and threatened 10,000 homes....

Some of this is due to irresponsible home owners.
Not clearing out under brush, trees to close to homes, and so on.

Farting in the forest during the summer starts a forest fire in California. :D