DC-10 Air Tanker Humboldt Fire Chico, CA 2008

[BENW76]

we really needed that baby here in vic australia last year it was a battle field

[benrennik]

i'm a wildfire fighter from New Hampshire....i'm thinking of joining Firestorm out of Chico....anyone else know of other crews in the area that are contracted?

[jamietheprogamer]

What is it spraying because it doesnt look like water?

[travelcedric]

It is a fire retardant. It is a kind of salt based chemical that will not only retard the fire, but act as a fertilizer to help regrow the forest. It is dyed red to help pilots know where the life is. These kinds of drops are not meant to douse the fire, but to corral it and try to prevent it from spreading.

[cubes887]

fire retardant, thats whats in the common extinguishers, but thats designed for bushland fires (wood) the only dangerous element is the DC10 is a very unreliable plane, it had over 5 mid air disasters because of design faults, so wat the hells going on when u modify a shit box? and try'n sell it to us aussies? the yanks must think we'r wombats.

[geterdonein01]

@cubes887 There's nothing really wrong with the airframe. Those design flaws were fixed back in the 60's. They are tough reliable cargo planes. And since when did 10-Tanker try to sell it to Australia?

[joek0617]

@cubes887 australia contracted the evergreen 747

[hellcat29er]

Tanker 910 and 911 are both based at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, CA, if you drive along Air Base Road, you will see it just beyond the perimeter. I saw it come in for a landing a couple weeks ago.

[blondecowdude]

There are 2 aircraft operated by Omni Air International out of Tulsa OK, N450AX and N17085.

[martin2145]

thank you sausage!! that thing would do great in the desert or grasslands, but when it comes to timber forget it, mide as well be spitting on it. and hey german there is a 747 out there that their trying to get on fires, look up evergreen. Hell even the P3's and the smaller tankers dont do good on timber fires. I was just on a fire in the desert about 5 days ago and the tankers did a hell of a job, they stopped the forward progression, and we were able to catch it at 17 acres.

[geterdonein01]

what a good looking bird that is.

[sausage450r]

it is privately owned, it is extremely expensive to call to a fire, and all other attack aircraft must be grounded for it to do its job. it would do a kick ass job in a plains setting but mountainous areas not so much

[germanchocolate1982]

a DC-10 air tanker? What's next. Check out the new Boeing 747 super tanker.

[TheIceman567]

I live in Paradise I remember this shit it wasn't fun.

[sunsetreptiles]

our tax dollars did not go in to this project. a private own company bought the plane, build the plane, and tested the plane.

[sunsetreptiles]

cal fire doesnt not own this plane. its own buy a private own company

[Stekylo]

that plane is on its way to Santa Barbara!

[32574]

i think american airlines sold that thing to cal-fire for 'bout a buck or a penny (for legalyties they couldn't just give it away) and it is stationed in lancaster cali. if i'm wrong please correct !!!!!!!!

[sunsetreptiles]

I think this plane is station in California and stays here and doesn't leave the state when we have our wild fires.

[erato99]

That sexy plane shot it's hot red love load all over that whore mother nature's hot spot...Nice

[nItBuRnZ]

Nice post dude, that I live in so cal and like watchin that thing, good choice o tune too. I disagree on PR, that has quick turn around time and lays hella line of fosscheck.

[martin2145]

that thing is just for PR. For all of you out there airplanes and helicopters dont put out the fires the folks on the ground to the hard work. people think that just because there is aircraft that the fires just magically go out, well they dont. And do you all know how much $ that big ol jumbo jet just costed you in that short little video? Lets just say more then most of us make in a year.

[daddyoca69]

I live in Magalia / Paradise where the poop was hitting the fan. I never heard any ground guys bitching that they had help from the sky. No those planes will not do it on there own and the trench guys do 80% of the work. But any help they got they loved.

If they were worried about PR so much maybe they would have had more food on hand to feed them. A lot of locals took up the task with raiding costco to make sure they eat and eat well.

[martin2145]

Hey daddy I work as a wildland firefighter for the feds in quincy, live in chico. I know what the guys on the ground do. Dont get me wrong there are places where they do come in handy, but next time you see that thing fly over you can count the money by the thousands every second it is in the air. And hey the feds waste money to but thats a whole other story. It just needs to be used very carefully and methodically, there are huge wastes of money in the fire service when it comes to aircraft.

[0011772]

its already paid for the only extra cost is flight hours at 5500 per hour which is cheaper than p-2 or p-3 or even helicopters if you dont believe me look it up

[jsmpirineos]

I totally agree,its better to use more small planes like air tractors than that beast

[flingwing76]

For the cost to operate that thing they could have a small herd of SEATs and helicopters.  And could they drop from any higher? I mean 400-500 feet even with those thousands of gallons just doesn't cut it in my mind. Our tax dollars wasted on someones pet project.

[retsisruoydekcufi]

They need that big Evergreen 747 dropping anti flame stuff as well.

[martin2145]

that thing is crap.

[lmsasquatch]

WTF?

[Blackened75]

That thing is a beast!

[RogerWilco357]

That DC-10 is amazing. This is the first fire I was on that I got to watch it work. Where was this video taken from?

[muffman2000es]

That was the fire in Paradise, just a few miles south of Chico, Ca in butte county. I have personally seen the devastation this fire brought - its gonna be a bad year

[muffman2000es]

I'm going to correct myself.. it is actually east of Chico. I meant to say "down the road".. but my fingers weren't communicating with my brain.

[geterdonein01]

yeah this fire got about 1/4 from my house, but i seen this DC-10 several times the day i evacuated, and once the day before.

[daddyoca69]

From the looks of this video it looks like on Skyway rd that connects Chico/ Paradise and over looks Butte Creek Canyon. The fire started north on side of highway 32 and moved south east to butte creek then flashed over Skyway and headed to Paradise.

[RogerWilco357]

Ya, I spent most of the fire on Skyway up at the golf course. Got to see this plane drop a few times. Was a crazy few days.