Upgrades that were done at the Redding Air Attack Base this year are paying off as the fight continues against the largest fire in the state. The base is located at the north end of the runway that’s shared with Redding Regional Airport. The improvements completed in April allow for up to five large airtankers to be loaded at the same time. Forest Service officials say that doubles the aerial firefighting capabilities across the western states. Saturday was the busiest day ever, when nearly 241,000 Gallons of fire retardant was loaded in a span of 8 hours. Each large airtanker holds 2 to 4,000 Gallons and can be filled in 12 minutes. The smaller 1,000 Gallon Cal-Fire airtankers can be filled in 3 minutes. There’s also a new backup generator at the base so a power outage won’t interrupt the operations.
-Steve Gibson