All six fire planes in the air over California

Two C-130s, equipped with Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems like this C-130 dropping water during annual MAFFS training in New Mexico, have been dispatched to help battle wildfires in California. The aircraft are from the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.


All six fire planes in the air over California
By Seamus O’Connor and Gidget Fuentes - Staff writers
Posted : Thursday Oct 25, 2007 22:44:47 EDT

As widespread wildfires ravaged parts of Southern California the week of Oct. 22, forcing a million people to flee their homes, all six of the Air Force’s Military Airborne Fire Fighting System units were engaged in the battle. Their first missions were flown Oct. 24.
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Several thousand homes and hundreds of other structures may be lost, and official death counts and damage estimates were yet to be determined.

Air Force Reserve tankers carried water to the inferno, and other military units joined state and local firefighting efforts, assisted at a dozen evacuation sites and guarded neighborhoods devastated by the fires.

By press time, the Air Force and its reserve components had committed the following assets to firefighting and evacuation operations:

å North Carolina Air National Guard: About 50 airmen and four C-130s, two MAFFS-equipped, deployed from the 145th Airlift Wing.

å Pope Air Force Base, N.C.: Fifteen airmen with the 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron deployed to arrange flights for hospital and nursing home patients to other hospitals.


Video available at link: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/10/airforce_maffs_fires_071025/