Helicopter Firefighters

The Lockheed fire is still raging but they are making progress on containing it. It has burned 6,842 acres and is now 40% contained. We'd been hearing firefighting helicopters and planes for the past few days so we decided to go and find them. We did and it was AMAZING to watch them refill and drop water on the fire. We could actually see the flames from our van... but don't worry we were safe. Here are some of the many pictures we took. I have to say, there is something about helicopters that really excites me. Every time I see one it increases my desire to want to learn how to fly one. They really are amazing pieces of machinery. We must have seen 10 different ones today. At one time there were 6 in the sky above us. I was like a little kid watching them. Our kids loved them too and enjoyed watching from the comfort of the van. You couldn't ask for a better viewing. We ate our dinner while we watched them work. Kind of like dinner and a show. A huge thank you to all of the firefighters and helicopter pilot! We're praying for your safety and those that are being affected by this fire. Dipping into Scott Creek.

I was wondering if they could use ocean water and I got my answer- Yes they can. However, we only saw the Coast Guard helicopter refilled in the ocean. They tried filling from the creek one time but it was really wobbly so when it came back they headed to the ocean... which was just across the street from where we were parked.

Our van with the Huey getting ready to refill.

Josiah yelled every time they came by... which was every few minutes. We saw them filling on both sides of the van.

Tori was nervous for the first few minutes because she was afraid they'd drop water on our van. Once we convinced her that it was OK she really enjoyed herself.

We kept seeing a really cool looking helicopter in the distance so we decided to move on down the road and find out what it was doing. When we got to Waddell Creek we found the "big boys". There were amazing helicopters! This was our favorite. It's an Erickson air-crane and it can suck up 2,650 gallons of water in 45 seconds from just 18 inches of water. We came home and looked up the info on it because we were so impressed. Here's the link if you're a bit obsessed with helicopters like we are. http://www.ericksonaircrane.com/firefighting.php

Chinook refilling behind us. When the sun was almost down for the evening all 6 of the helicopters above us turned and flew away. I'm sure they had a very long day but we were sorry to see them go... I'm sure the firefighters on the ground were as well.