Five air tankers are helping firefighters tackle wildfires in Northern California, shuttling between various blazes and Sacramento McClellan Airport armed with flame retardant to slow down progress of the fires. The tankers carry more than 3,000 gallons of fire retardant, each can cover a mile of the blaze and can be re-loaded within 8 a.m. on return to base. Crews from Cal Fire said the tankers had the advantage of covering remote and geographically dense areas, and warned the amount of wildfires so early in the fire season could be a bad sign of what's to come.
Five air tankers are helping firefighters tackle wildfires in Northern California, shuttling between various blazes and Sacramento McClellan Airport armed with flame retardant to slow down progress of the fires. The tankers carry more than 3,000 gallons of fire retardant, each can cover a mile of the blaze and can be re-loaded within 15 minutes on return to base. Crews from Cal Fire said the tankers had the advantage of covering remote and geographically dense areas, and warned the amount of wildfires so early in the fire season could be a bad sign of what's to come.