Firefighting Jobs - Aerial Fire Fighting

Aerial firefighting is a type of firefighting methodremoves the heat from the fire and covers it so
that has come to be because of wildfiresthe fire can't get any oxygen. A Borat salt
occurring in difficult areas to reach. Aircraftmixture was once used but it was found to not
including helicopters and planes are used in aerialonly be toxic to the animals but would cause the
firefighting and each carry regular water or asoil to become worthless.
special fire extinguishing material. In combinationThe new ammonium sulfate mixture is combined
with these special aircraft that fight the fire fromwith a clay and guar gum to thicken it and a red
the sky, Smoke-jumpers are a special group ofcoloring is also added. This mixture helps prevent
firefighters who parachute in to the difficult areasrust deposits from occurring and the thickness
and fight the fire from the ground. They are aprovides a lower chance of the material running
very unique breed of firefighters and the deathoff the original location it is applied to and the
rate for these firefighters is not low because ofcoloring shows where it has been applied. This
the dangerous job they do.safer chemical will actually fertilize the ground to
The helicopters use a bucket or tank to carryhelp vegetation grow back quicker but if any of
water or other material to extinguish the fire.the ammonium sulfate mixture gets into a body
They fill the bucket with water by dipping it into aof water and incurs too much sunlight, it could be
pond or lake nearby and then it is flown to andharmful to the fish in that water.
dumped on the fire. One of the most widely usedAerial firefighting can save more land than by just
buckets designed for this job is called the Bambiusing a regular ground attack because they can
Bucket. The helicopters using tanks will get thecover more area from the air. As seen on the
water from a nearby water source also, by usingmany television broadcasts showing wild fires, it
a straw-like snorkel. The tanks can usually be filledcan be a week to a few months before these
while they are in the air with this type of snorkeltypes of fires are completely extinguish even with
device. Airplanes carry tanks that can be filledthe help of these special firefighters. We could be
while they are on the ground and/or by skimminglosing a larger amount of our forests were it not
across the water to fill them if necessary.for the personnel performing aerial firefighting
Most aerial firefighting jobs are done with ajobs.
chemical called ammonium sulfate. This chemical