Cal Fire's air tankers at Sacramento McClellan Airport running around the clock to fight Park Fire
MCCLELLAN PARK – The battle to put out the flames stretches from Butte County to Sacramento County, as air tankers perform a delicate dance of taking off and landing, in an effort to put out the flames.
The fight to put out fires is just as important on the ground as it is in the air.
Over 100,000 gallons of fire retardant have been loaded up as of Friday into tankers to fight the Park Fire from here and that number keeps climbing as tankers keep flying in.
Cal Fire's air tanker base at McClellan running around the clock. As one air tanker comes in, another is on its way out.
"The support that we get from the VLATs (Very Large Air Tanker) and LATs (Large Air Tanker) is astronomically huge for firefighting purposes," said Alan Rose.
Rose is the base manager at McClellan air tanker base.
VLATs can hold up to 10,000 gallons of fire retardant in the belly of the plane.
The retardant is mixed and made on-site. Crews use a pink powder, with water, and it's funneled through, into the air tankers.
"Almost like a liquid slime that gets put on the ground," Rose said. "Fire goes up to that product and it slows it down enough for hand crews to get in and put it out."
Each roundtrip takes about an hour for the tanker to make a drop and come back ready to go out again.
The Park Fire is visible from the control tower at McClellan that's around 80 miles away.
The fire has scorched over 239,000 acres as of Friday evening and air tankers continue to come in and refuel and reload to go back out and fight the Park Fire.
Just on the other side of the air base, is McClellan's helicopter base.
These Firehawks, military Blackhawk helicopters converted to carry 1,000 gallons of water to fight fires, now met with the newest certified pilots.
"Monday is my first day at shift at Vina, where Shane and I are going to be working out of," said Bradley Hall, one of Cal Fire's newest Firehawk pilots. "Looking forward to get up there and do what we can to help."
Hall and Shane Roberson completed the Firehawk training with Cal Fire Friday morning.
First thing next week, they say they'll be out fighting the fire that is threatening their home base.
"The Park Fire is right by our unit, right by our base. We're excited to get in on the action and help fight this fire," said Roberson.
The Firehawks can also fly at night since they are equipped with night vision.
These are the newest tools in Cal Fire's tool chest. There's normally a fleet of them parked at McClellan, but they're out fighting the Park Fire. Leaving two behind for training and backup.