WATCH: Photos Capture Planes Helping Fight California Wildfires
Palisades resident Patrick Golling talks about his family’s response to the California wildfires during an appearance on ‘Varney & Co.’
Many planes and helicopters are helping to fight wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), wildfires have been burning in the Los Angeles area for about a week, with five fires burning in Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties as of Friday afternoon.
Cal Fire currently has more than 60 airplanes and helicopters in its firefighting fleet — and the planes are heavily involved in efforts to fight fires from above.
In the year A firefighter stands on a fire truck to fight the Palisades Fire as homes burned along Pacific Coast Highway during a powerful storm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images/Getty Images)
According to Cal Fire’s “Firefighting Aircraft Recognition Guide,” Rockwell uses OV-10 aircraft “as the primary command and control platform at wildland incidents.”
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Those planes can operate at a top speed of 258 miles per hour.
Cal Fire counts three King Air A200 twin-turboprop aircraft among its “air tactical aircraft.”
On its pages dedicated to the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires, Cal Fire noted that “several firefighting air tankers from across the region are flying firefighting missions as conditions permit.”
The department uses Grumman S-2T and Lockheed C-130H aircraft as air tankers.
Their purpose is to “provide a rapid first attack on wildland fires,” according to Cal Fire.
A Calfire aircraft drops fire retardant on Davis Winery during the Glass fire on September 27, 2020 in Napa County, St. Helena, California. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The latter can carry 1,200 gallons and the former has a capacity of 4,000.
Cal Fire is also home to the Sikorsky S70i Cal Fire Hawk and Bell UH-1H Super Huey helicopters.
A Cal Fire helicopter prepares to drop water on a wildfire near a large home in Emerald Hills near PG&E’s Edgewood substation in Redwood City, Calif. | Getty Images
Both are capable of rapid delivery to a 9-person HeliTac crew and to water/foam dumping missions, according to Cal Fire.
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Sikorsky’s permanent tank holds 1,000 gallons of water or foam. Meanwhile, the Super Hue has a capacity of 324 gallons for the buckets and 360 for the permanent tank.
Non-Cal Fire aircraft have been seen battling wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
For example, the 10 Tanker Air Carrier “flew more than 37 hours and dropped more than 260,000 gallons late to serve the LA area and the Palisades,” he said on Monday. Giant makes McDonnell Douglas DC-10 tankers.
An airplane drops a fire extinguisher during the Eaton Fire near Altadena, California, US, Monday, January 13, 2025. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Canada has long been leasing Canadair CL-415 superscope aircraft, and according to a press release Friday, two more are headed to Los Angeles to help.
An ultra-scooper water-dropping firefighting aircraft flies to retrieve water from the Pacific Ocean, in Los Angeles, California, US, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. | Getty Images
Those planes “take water from oceans, lakes and reservoirs that can be disposed of like regular water or mixed with foam repellent,” according to Cal Fire.
The Air National Guard is flying a fleet of C-130 Hercules “modular aerial firefighting systems” to the Los Angeles area.
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Three of Wildfires It is currently active in the Los Angeles area on January 7, including the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires.
The Palisades fire — the largest — has since burned more than 23,700 acres and was 17% contained as of Friday afternoon. The Eaton and Hurst fires have 35% and 97% containment respectively.
Smoke is seen as a brush fire burns in California’s Pacific Palisades on January 7, 2025. (David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Two others — the Auto Fire in Ventura County and the Scout Fire in Riverside County — popped up this week, affecting a total of nearly 60 acres.
Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed in the wildfires. At least 24 people lost their lives.
