See what battling California wildfires look like from cockpit of a C-130 aircraft
Equipped with airborne fire-fighting systems, C-130 Super Hercules planes are flying missions over the wildfires in Southern California that started earlier this month.
California Air National Guard video shared Wednesday shows a pilot’s point-of-view as the aircraft flies over and drops retardant on the Hughes Fire in Castaic, near Los Angeles.
The planes can “discharge their entire load of up to 3,000 gallons of retardant in less than five seconds, covering an area one-quarter of a mile long by 100 feet wide, or they can make variable drops,” the California Air National Guard said in a description of the video.
Once a load is discharged, the aircraft can be refilled in less than 12 minutes.
As of Thursday morning, firefighters north of Los Angeles were racing to contain the brush fire that quickly burned more than 10,000 acres and forced the temporary closure of parts of Interstate 5.
Red flag warnings signifying dangerous fire weather conditions were in effect for much of Southern California on Thursday as wind gusts of up to 65 mph were predicted.
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM.
