King Fire Smoke Grounds Firefighting Planes At Busy McClellan Airfield
MCCLELLAN AIRFIELD (CBS13) — The King Fire is costing about $5 million a day to fight, according to Cal Fire, and much of that fight is coming from the air.
Cal Fire has a number of fire-retardant tankers in its fleet. Renting the big DC-10 for just an hour costs more than $12,000, and that's without the cost of retardant.
RELATED: King Fire: Record-Setting Amounts Of Retardant Used To Slow Massive Fire's Spread In Drought
On Wednesday alone, Cal Fire says it used more than 200,000 gallons of retardant. About 530,000 gallons of retardant have come out of McClellan Airfield.
But fire officials say it's a crucial part of protecting property.
INFOGRAPHIC: U.S. Forest Service Aerial Fleet for Wildland Fire Management 2014
"When they do one drop with 11,600 gallons, which is their max, that's a lot of retardant at one time," said Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff.
But why a record-breaking amount of fire retardant needed?
"Initially this fire was burning in a very populated area, just east of Pollock Pines," she said. "There was great concern there. the other thing is, we're back into our third year of a drought, a very severe drought. the fuels out there are just burning very well."
White bundles of powdered fire retardant are ready to be mixed with water and pumped into the tanker.
Clark Cook comes to take pictures of planes loading up, taking off and landing.
"We heard that there's some activity out here and we're just getting some practice on some moving targets," he said. "Well I guess it's just people who have an interest in aviation and like to see the heavy iron taking off and landing up close."
But the tankers haven't flown much on Friday, because the smoke isn't clearing out.
"The problem is when they have to come down on to make a drop, they're going to be about 200 feet above those fuels," Tolmachoff said. "That's not very much and they've got to see exactly where they're going, exactly what they're doing."
Without air support, firefighters have to change their approach.
"They're going to have to do as much as they can from the ground," she said. "They don't have the advantage of having the air resources there right now at this point."
Fire retardant costs about $1.89 a gallon. Cal Fire says it hasn't had to dip into the reserve budget, yet.
