This is a Canadair CL-215-1A10 with the tail number C-GFSN. It is a Water Bomber from Alberta Canada. I guess it must be on loan.
Right now there are over a hundred active fires in Alaska. There are several in the Northwest Arctic region where Kotzebue is located.
These aircraft come down out of the sky and skim along the surface of the water and scoop water into the tanks before taking back off to go dump their load on the fire. Below is a clip of a news report on this kind of aircraft (this video is from Minnesota).
And here is a video taken in Kiana, Alaska (about 80 miles from Kotzebue) of a water bomber in action.
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2 comments:
That is crazy. I mean, when I think of forest fires, the very last place I would think of them being is Alaska. I don't know of a single one going on right now in SoCal.
Alaska has hundreds of lightning started fires in any given year. Cathy can correct me if I'm wrong, but wildfires burn 1.0 to 1.5 million acres a year in Alaska (about the same acreage that burned in/around Yellowstone in 1988.)
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