Dozens of wildfires are currently scorching the western U.S. with Colorado and New Mexico getting hit the hardest recently … but unfortunately the country still has a long, hot summer to go.
Wildfires consume nearly 8 million acres of forested land each year on average across the United States.
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports as of June 14, 2013 there have been 19,472 fires across the U.S. which have burned 461,850 acres year-to-date so the country is way below average … for now.
In today’s Friday Fotos we wanted to share some wildfire scenes from the front lines including helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and the amazing firefighters.
Below: Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter drops 600 gallons of water on a fire
Below: Black Hawk helicopters from the Army Aviation Support Facility on Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, Colo., perform water drops using Bambi Buckets®. The buckets can carry up to 500 gallons of water and make more than 20 drops before refueling. (Photo by Air Force Capt. Darin Overstreet) See more NG photos from Colorado’s Black Forest fire
A MAFFS C-130 drops retardant on the Black Forest Fire, June 12, 2013. The modular airborne firefighting systems (MAFFS) can drop up to 3000 gallons of retardant covering an area one-quarter of a mile long and 60 feet wide. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jonathan C. Thibault
Download a free ebook portion of our IT’S A DISASTER! book with data about evacuations, wildfires and more … and stay safe out there! j & B
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