LA wildfires: Aerial firefighter leader says blaze should be ‘wake-up’ call.

The head of the United Aerial Firefighters Association, which has deployed about 200 pilots to Southern California to fight massive wildfires, told Fox News Digital that the scale of the fires is “absolutely staggering” and that it is shaping up to be some of the worst. Country history.

“What we’re seeing, especially in the United States and around the world, is there’s no fire season — it’s fire year-round,” Paul Peterson said Wednesday. “(This) could be the deadliest and highest climate-cost wildfire in American history.”

Aerial firefighters with the union are limited to eight-hour shifts in the air like airline pilots. However, Peterson said they are on 24-hour shifts. At night, pilots wear night vision goggles, he said. From the air, they communicate the location of the fire with the firefighters on the ground and spray water or protective substances from above.

Among the aircraft offered by the association are helicopters such as Blackhawks and ACH 47 Chinooks, and air tankers such as Grumman S-2T and Lockheed C-130H aircraft that carry thousands of gallons of water. They offer “Scooper” planes, “Water drawn from oceans, lakes and reservoirs can be disposed of as regular water or mixed with foam retardant,” Cal Fire explains.

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These planes will add to the huge fleet of planes trying to put out fires in Southern California. Cal Fire currently has more than 60 aircraft and helicopters in its firefighting fleet. Cal Fire counts three King Air A200 twin-turboprop aircraft among its “air tactical aircraft.” The Air National Guard is flying a fleet of C-130 Hercules “modular aerial firefighting systems” to the Los Angeles area.

“I’ve just looked at the pictures, and I’ve talked to the fire chiefs over there — they’re confirming that the damage is worse than what you see on TV and worse than you can imagine,” he continued. “And from a firefighter’s point of view, it’s completely frustrating because firefighters are called to solve problems and their people are called when it’s the worst day. And you try to solve the problem, and you can’t.”

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As of Wednesday, more than 40,000 acres and more than 12,300 homes have burned across the state between the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Auto Wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Palisades Fire, which has consumed more than 23,000 acres in the Los Angeles area, is only 19% contained, the agency said.

“You know when 13,000 homes were destroyed, it pissed off a lot of firefighters because they didn’t have the equipment to do it,” Peterson said.

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A mural by Sergey Stasenko, who goes by the artist name Stike, is praised by firefighters as it burns in the Venice Beach area of ​​Los Angeles, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

“There are two different components to[this],” Peterson said of why these recent fires have been so devastating. “You know when you have severe weather and the Santa Ana winds are blowing 50, 60, 70, 80 miles an hour, and then you put a fire in there … it moves so fast that people are not prepared.

“Communities that aren’t prepared for it, firefighters are going to be surprised by it… When you start losing house after house and block after block, you’re trying to figure out how do we stop this? And, you know, there’s really no playbook on how to stop a fire.”

Fox News Digital previously reported that the city’s fire department had run out of water while firefighters worked to contain the fire, and the department’s budget had been cut in the weeks before the Palisades fire.

“Without additional funding for wildland fires, we’re going to continue to see this over and over again,” Peterson said. “(It’s) not just recognizing that it’s fire season year-round, but it’s about getting the money and not just for fire protection, but for hazardous fuels, funding and money to make communities stronger. Take this seriously like you have to do everything to protect communities from fire.”

California Department of Corrections crews work containment lines ahead of the Palisades Fire Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Santa Monica, California. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

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“Fire and suppression is such a big part that it’s really important to look at the local, state and federal levels of how we start fighting,” he continued. “You’ve got to fight. You’ve got to fight the fires you’ve got. But you’ve also got to remove the fuel, the trees, the pastures, the greens. And there’s got to be incentives from the insurance companies for the fire-affected communities. All three have to work to do that, and they’ve got to be embarrassed at the same time.”

“It takes tragedy for people to really wake up to this,” Peterson said. “And firefighters have been talking about this for 25 years, these problems have been happening.”

As authorities battled arsonists and looters in Los Angeles this week, two men were charged with arson. Peterson said it is highly unlikely that the fire started naturally due to lightning or accidental ignition.

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A helicopter makes a drop as smoke rises from the Palisades Fire in the Encino neighborhood on January 11, 2025 in Los Angeles, California, US. (Reuters/Daniel Dreyfuss)

“I can tell you with probably 99% certainty that there was no lightning and in fact there was no natural initiation … It is not caused by high winds (like the Santa Ana winds) … Lightning is the number one cause,” he said.

“So whether it’s burning or from the carelessness of citizens or utility companies (probably a) man-made fire… the wind is a natural phenomenon, the fire is natural, but it’s not the cause of the fire. It’s natural,” he said.