California Wildfires

[Matches]

Phroger I think this might interest you quite as I assume you are miltary personnel and this is a bit of US Military.

I just learned on our local news tonight that one of the Martin Mars, the worlds largest flying boats and water based water bombers will be heading down to join in the fight. The Martin Mars were originally built as troop carriers for the US marines in the 1950's. I believe there were 5 originally, but now there are just the two, that were both converted to water bombers and mainly used in British Columbia.

The Hawaiian Mars which is the one on it's way to California has a capacity of 7,200 gals and cover an area of 4 acres.

I have the privelege of being based in the same town as these planes and work with them quite a bit.

Anyone who is down in this area keep an out for the Mars, whether in the air or on the news. They are magnificent to see in person.

Here's a link to their site:
http://www.martinmars.com/aircraft.htm

[SingleDaddyof2]

Thanks for the heads up, Matches! I live in a very hilly area of L.A. but no fires are even close to our neighborhood. But the fires are on TV pretty much all day. My younger brother runs a county juvenile detention camp in Malibu. He spotted flames at 5:00 am a bit downhill (but upwind) of the camp. He called for a couple of county probation buses to evacuate the juvies and they were transported safely to another camp. My brother was asked by his boss to stay at the camp (who knows why with a fire close by) and he did. But when he saw some flames uphill of his camp Sunday evening, he locked up the camp and quickly drove out. He's now safe at home but we were concerned, for sure.

So Tuesday was a hazy day here due to the smoke high in the sky. And there is quite a bit of ash floating around in the air and settling everywhere--especially noticeable on cars. And of course we're keeping all people endangered by the fire and the firefighters in our thoughts and prayers.

Andy