Air tankers and helicopters, silhouetted by the lowering California sun, dart in and out of enormous wildfire plumes in the skies above Los Angeles, dumping valuable and much-needed flame-retardant water onto the enraged fires below.
From an aerial helicopter over the city, AFP correspondents observed half a dozen fires, smoldering smoke eruptions that filled the horizon and rose from the rocky terrain like recently erupted volcanoes.
Firefighters rapidly redirected their substantial air resources on this most recent fire, turning a relatively calm airspace above the fledgling Kenneth Fire into a hive of frantic activity in a matter of minutes.
Around half a dozen helicopters buzzed at low altitude, tipping water onto the edge of the inferno.
Higher up, small aircraft periodically guided giant tankers that dumped bright-red retardant onto the flames.
“There’s never been so many at the same time, just ripping” through the skies, said helicopter pilot Albert Azouz.
Flying for a private aviation company since 2016, he has seen plenty of fires including the deadly Malibu blazes of six years ago.
“That was insane,” he recalled.
But when he hovers his aircraft over the mayhem, he keeps saying that this is a “crazy town.”
Late Thursday afternoon, the new Kenneth Fire erupted close to Calabasas, a chic neighborhood south of Los Angeles that has gained notoriety thanks to its prominent residents, including the Kardashian dynasty from reality TV.
Aircraft from as far away as Canada have been sent in, including Boeing Chinook helitankers equipped with 3,000-gallon tanks.
These have proven to be a vital instrument in the fight to control fires and lessen more damage, as they were unable to fly during the initial hours of Tuesday’s Los Angeles fires due to winds of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour.
Helicopters performed several hundred drops on Thursday, while conditions permitted.
Those helicopters equipped to operate at night continued to buzz around the smoke-filled region, working frantically to tackle the flames, before stronger gusts are forecast to sweep back in to the Los Angeles basin overnight.
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