On January 2, 2020, the state of New South Wales declared a state of emergency as Australia’s bushfires continued their deadly rampage. The next day the Australian state’s former fire commissioner urged the prime minister to call in back-up. The country needed more fire bombers from North America and Europe.
But one machine already hard at work was the S-64E Air Crane, operated by Oregon-based Erickson Inc. Six of its huge helicopters had been already been dousing the fires that put Australians—and the continent’s indigenous wildlife—at risk.
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