Tanker history: Martin Mars dropping on the 2009 Station Fire

In the late summer of 2009, the Station Fire burned 160,577 acres, two firefighters died and 89 residences were destroyed. I have some articles tagged Station Fire here, and Wikipedia has a summary of the Station Fire here. The fire burned some television antennas and equipment on the top of Mt. Wilson. I spent quite a few hours watching live stream from Los Angeles media of the air operations over Mt. Wilson. I spent one night being afraid that the Mt. Wilson observatory might be destroyed or severely damaged, that did not happen. One of the now historic air tankers that dropped on Mt. Wilson was the Martin Mars. The Martin Mars is, in all likely hood retired from firefighting operations. I spent several minutes watching the live stream of her drop on Mt. Wilson, elegance in action. A very special tanker.

The video below may or may not be the same live stream that I saw almost ten years ago, but that does not matter. Enjoy this video, a little over six minutes of the Martin Mars preparing to drop and then dropping on Mt. Wilson during the Station Fire in late August 2009.


Direct link to video