MESA, Ariz. — Our state fire crews are hard at work this wildfire season. Brush fires and wildfires are burning around the Valley, but the aerial equipment needed to combat those fires is always ready to go -- parked at Mesa-Gateway Airport.
When you walk through a DC-10 air tanker, it's hard to imagine that it once flew with more than 350 passengers. After the plane "retires" from commercial use, it's then outfitted or essentially gutted to become an air tanker.
These aircraft are not only used to combat wildfires here in Arizona but across the world.
Chris Price, who manages the tanker base with the U.S. Forest Service, said this jumbo jet is all business during wildfire season.
"We did see an uptick in fires, and it's been pretty steady since then, this season," Price said. "But these tankers can get down in the valleys and in the canyons just like the smaller aircraft."
Crews shared recent footage taken from inside the lead plane of the Diamond Fire that sparked near Rio Verde at the end of June, while crews in the DC-10, just seconds behind waited for the signal to drop the fire retardant.
"The plane is an extension of the crew. They have a synergy and they're able to communicate with each other inside the cockpit, even though the third person in the back isn't even seeing the wildfire while they're dropping."
The three-person crew works quickly, hoping to save acreage, property, and most importantly, people.
"Having the ability to park them here at Mesa Gateway is a huge advantage for us, to get to the forest in and out quickly."
The tankers can get filled up in 18 minutes or less with 9,400 gallons of fire retardant, then they're ready to go. Before those planes are filled up, central communication comes through dispatch to allocate the resources needed to best fight any wildfire that sparks across State 48.
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