Colorado Air Force Reserve Takes To The Skies For Wildfire Training
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- The Colorado Air Force Reserve will be taking part in wildfire training. The training starts at the Jeffco Airtanker Base on Monday.
Crews will be flying C-130s to the nearby Arapaho, Roosevelt, and Pike National Forests to conduct water drops. The aircraft will likely be seen from the Denver metro area.
The C-130s are equipped to drop up to 3,000 gallons of fire retardant in less than 10 seconds. They are only activated when all commercial air tankers are already in use.
Last year, they were deployed to California from July to October.
"Our fire training this year is going to be vital. We're coming out of a COVID season where our training was hampered. We were not able to get folks into the same room and share lessons learned and new tactics, this year's strategies and technologies so we can do this safely," said Lt. Col. Richard Pantusa, Aerial Firefighting Chief.
The training will continue for about a week.