We've already seen a helicopter stealing water from a pool to fight a fire in Portugal. But when the Colby fire in California spread to over 1,900 acres, a little helicopter wasn't enough to fight the flames. They needed planes. Two of them. And seeing the way they scoop water up close is incredible.
Advertisement
Burning in the suburbs of Los Angeles, the Colby fire is now mostly contained, but one of the big reasons authorities were able to do that is because of these two CL-415 "Superscoopers." The Superscooper isn't called that for no reason – each one can grab 1,620 gallons of water at a time to dump on a nearby fire, in this case from the lake at the Santa Fe recreation area.
I wonder what would happen if you were swimming at the time, though.