A giant, orange, single-digit number painted on the tail and fuselage makes identification easy and immediate during missions. The retardant is just as easily identified. The dry, concentrated retardant is delivered from the contractor in 2,000-pound bags. Underground hoses connect the tanks to a servicing area where ground crews pump the mixture into the airplanes when a mission is ordered. From the staging area at Redding Municipal Airport, Reserve and Guard C-130 crews had flown 168 sorties and dropped 529,300 gallons of retardant on five major wildfires in California and Oregon by Aug. 24.
Dry lightning is a weather phenomenon that happens when thunderstorms fail to yield rain.
By Aug. 23, we responded to more than 145,000 acres of wildfire, which exceeded the total acreage for last year. And at that point, we were just over halfway through the fire season. With continuing help from Guard and Reserve crews and their specially equipped Hercules aircraft, California's forests won't suffer from burnout.