A Super Scooper drops ocean water on a hillside as the Palisades fire rages in California earlier this month.
Photographer: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Nonstop Wildfires Are Straining the Global Arsenal to Fight Them
Los Angeles wildfires are being battled by shared planes and multi-national personnel. Now, with overlapping fire seasons and bigger infernos, those collaborations are being put to the test.
Pascal Duclos’ aircraft shook like a toy plane as he and his co-pilot navigated 100 miles per hour winds over arid canyons, the arcing blue curve of the Pacific Ocean and rising plumes of smoke from the voracious Palisades Fire.
While firefighters on the ground attacked the blazes earlier this month with hoses until hydrants ran dry, Duclos’ mission was to provide reinforcement from the sky. He is stationed in Los Angeles County every fire season as part of an elite group of Canadian pilots who fly water bombing planes, known as Super Scoopers, capable of dousing the most apocalyptic fires from above with dazzling speed.