# Tool Talk >  Fire bomber plane puts out truck fire - GIF, photos, and video

## Jon

A Canadair CL-415 fire bomber plane puts out a truck fire in Labrador, Canada. The truck driver got out and survived.




42-second video:



Here's a nice shot of a CL-415 dropping water:


And here's one refilling; note the water overflow ports under the wings:


More of the CL-415 water bomber in action:




Previously:
Microburst causes planes to takeoff by themselves - video
Drunk man steals airplane
1920s airplane wing walking
Airplane short takeoff/landing records
Wing snaps off airplane, whole-plane parachute deploys
Bird strike through Cessna 210 windshield
Aerobatic helicopter tricks
James Bond flies world's smallest jet through hangar in Octo*****
C-130s modified with rockets for hostage rescue

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carloski (Jul 15, 2022),

Seedtick (Aug 31, 2017)

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## mklotz

Canadians will be happy to know that we here in Southern California appreciate their fine aircraft as well. In September 2009, a brushfire started in a canyon within sight of my backyard. The topography of the canyon made it difficult to deal with the fire using land-based equipment so they called in the air force. I took the pictures below while standing on my patio...

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blkadder (Jul 27, 2019),

Seedtick (Aug 31, 2017)

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## neilabourjaily

Watching the dump portion of the video closely, I think I notice the pilot feathering his props to finely adjust speed at the point of dump. Could be an illusion or a delusion.

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## Toolmaker51

> A Canadair CL-415 fire bomber plane puts out a truck fire in Labrador, Canada. The truck driver got out and survived.



Crewleader: Watch out guys, water bomber inbound...
Crewleader to Aircrew: Zone clear.
SPLOOSHH.

Aircrew to Crewleader: It out?
Crewleader to Aircrew: Yep, out.
Aircrew to Crewleader: Copy that. Out. 
Barely 5 seconds....wow

Aware of water bombers, never watched details of a drop, have seen them scoop live. What a spectacle in hydrodynamics, not to mention flat and level flight. 
Clearly effective, nozzles, gravity and a bit of airspeed aerate water into fog just like fire nozzle. Is the water treated with any additives to break surface tension?

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## Frank S

It takes a good pilot to be a fire bomber just about anyone can learn to take off fly and land a plane with a few hours of instructions but to be able to belly in to a lake at speed and keep the thing from augering itself into the water while the weight of the aircraft increases exponentially with each passing second while skimming only a few inches off the surface means as soon as the chute touches the water power has to be increased relative to the amount of weight as the aircraft becomes heavier Some retrofitted planes have used hydrofoils which deploy with the chute to help prevent the slicing of the water from drawing the plane deeper.
Ideally once the tank is empty a quantity of surfactant or foaming agent is dumped into the tank from another storage unit sometimes you might see fire bombers dropping orange colored fluid on the fires this helps them to locate where they have dropped so the next bomber can start their drop before after or to the side where needed. Helicopters make great fire bombers in urban areas as they can hover and suck water from swimming pools and pin point drop right on the roof tops of burning houses sometimes using their suction/ drop tube to pierce through the roof and ceiling below

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## Mi Tasol

A longer version from a different camera is on Youtube. Having seen smaller fire bombers stop bigger fires it is obvious that this trucks cargo was something like tyres that are extremely difficult to extinguish.

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## Jon

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...r_fullsize.jpg

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## mklotz

A swept-wing, jet engine aircraft at low altitude and presumably low speed??? I'm sorry but that just doesn't sound like the right tool for the job. I would want a plane with a giant parasol wing (plenty of lift for slow speed flight and good visibility of the ground) and conventional engines, which, coincidentally, is what many water bombers look like.

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## Jon

Good point. Lack of resources?

I'm also partial to the aerial firefighting water refilling videos. 1:36 video of a Eurocopter AS350 refilling in a residential swimming pool. Portugal:

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## Jon

Your browser does not support the video tag.

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## Jon

The spotter plane (or bird dog plane) marks the spot for the tanker to drop the fire retardant.



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KustomsbyKent (Nov 25, 2018),

Midwestern640 (Aug 31, 2019),

PJs (Nov 26, 2018),

Seedtick (Nov 24, 2018)

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## 12bolts

Seems pointless. Spotter is on the same course and altitude.
Why cant the tanker just spot the area and release as required?

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## elk-a-holic

Bird dog pilot not only directs bomber where to drop but also warns ground personnel about incoming deluge. Bird dog comes in with siren whooping which tells people on th ground to get out of the way. Not good to get hit by several hundred gallons of water coming out of the sky at 100+ mph. Bird dog also can maneuver better and quicker than bomber and is in communication with ground crews

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PJs (Nov 26, 2018)

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## Toolmaker51

And the bomber, as a commercial airframe, couldn't have anything near the perspective vertically, hills and whatnot of the bird dog. Guess they aim for the marker, velocity and altitude do the rest. Kind of like what a crop duster does alone. Of course stall speed of a single engine high wing is what, half that of the jet?
In fact with one more view, the bomber opens same time he penetrates the marker, stretching the lay down several hundred feet. Duration's about 4 seconds, at 140 odd knots is ~950 feet. 
Thanks USN, making me fluent in time/speed/distance.

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PJs (Nov 26, 2018)

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## Jon

Firefighting helicopter fillup station.



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baja (Mar 19, 2019),

Midwestern640 (Aug 31, 2019),

Rangi (Mar 18, 2019),

Seedtick (Mar 18, 2019)

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## ranald

great idea for a refuelling station. We sometimes borrow "Elvis" here but I understand that our local Macdermet avaitation handles much of the fire fighting from the air and they usually have dams/lakes to top up the water.

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## Jon

> Super Scooper from the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on a touch-and-go to refuel on water to combat the fire spread in Alaska.





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baja (Sep 1, 2019),

bgmcw@bigpond.com (Sep 3, 2019),

Dragonhand (Aug 31, 2019),

hansgoudzwaard (Sep 1, 2019),

high-side (Aug 31, 2019),

jackhoying (Aug 31, 2019),

Midwestern640 (Aug 31, 2019),

Miloslav (Sep 1, 2019),

Rangi (Sep 1, 2019),

Seedtick (Aug 31, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (Sep 1, 2019),

Tule (Sep 1, 2019)

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