Aerial resources slow the fire down

I think that it is fair to say that I have probably had no experience in being up close and personal with a wildland fire. For that I am lucky. However, I have been close to a couple of structure fires in urban areas many years ago. So, I do know what fires can do. In both of these cases I was lucky, no damage to my apartment buildings. Live streams from news helos of wildland fires has afforded me the opportunity to see aerial resources and ground crews working wildland fires. I always learn something from watching these live streams. Sometimes, I am in touch with one of my tanker pilot friends as he is we are both watching the same live stream.

Such was the case one evening a couple of months ago. My friend sent me an e-mail with a link to a live stream of the Largo Vista Fire that was burning in Valyermo CA the night of August 20. Sometimes when he has sent me a note about a live stream of a fire, the news outlet is no longer showing live streams by the time I read get the opportunity to read my e-mail. This was not the case that night. At the same time that I was the live stream, I was also listening to live scanner feed from the LA County Sheriff Department.

My friend is great. When I asked him,

"is that an Air Crane that I see?"

He responded:

"Yes, it is one of Siller Brothers Cranes ."

I then saw a CAL Fire S-2T tanker making a drop, my friend identified it has one of CAL Fire's S-2T's out of Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base. Later, we both saw a Neptune P-2V making a drop along with what looked like a LA County helo make a drop. Then one of the Crane's made another drop.

But this time, the live stream was not just about the air show. Just before the aforementioned (LA County?) Helo was making a drop, the news helo had zoomed in on some ground crews working the fire. I saw what to me looked like the helo nailing the drop, making the drop just in the right place not all that far from where the ground crews were working. Not only was this drop effective, but it seemed to me that the ground crews were safely out of the way of the drop zone.

So, I wrote my friend:

"Nice drop, did you see that drop? A LA County Helo?

He wrote back:

"I did, a perfect drop." And he went on to say, "that was the absolute best example of the relationship of aerial resources and ground crews, we slow it down so the ground crews can pounce on it. It doesn't get any better than that!"

The fire was declared out on the evening of August 22. Final acreage was 120. For more information see this inciweb page and this initial attack thread in Wildland Fire.