Originally posted by SaburoS
Russia has the best fleet of firefighting planes. These things are huge. Russia offered to send them to help the southern Calif fires but was turned down.
Damn govt bureaucracy...
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Feds Won't Allow Russian Firefighting Planes
A fleet of Russian supertankers designed for fighting fires anywhere in the world could be deployed in the U.S., but they've never been approved for use here. A similar plane that has been put to use in California can drop water over a mile-long 300-feet wide swath in eight seconds and be refilled in eight minutes. Such a firefighting weapon "can be a game-changer," said owner Rick Hatton.
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one of the martin super scoopers from bc went down... it just arrived in cali.
http://www.martinmars.com/
come sept cali for sometime has leased a pair of cl415s from
quebec... i've watched a pair in tandem put out some fires in northern ontario.

here is vid of them working the fires a few days ago.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4b_1193018591