The Country Fire Service has praised the monumental response from water bombers at the Blackford fire with 101 drops in six hours to help bring the raging blaze under control.
CFS state aviation coordinator Nick Stanley said he was amazed by the incredibly efficient response by the six aircraft.
Putting it into context, he said it would normally require a much longer period for aviation crews to deposit a similar number of drops.
“This fire started after lunch so it was around six hours and that’s a very concentrated period of time to get 101 drops in,” Mr Stanley said.
He said the ground crews charged with refilling the aircraft worked tirelessly to help get aircraft back in the air as quickly as possible.
“When you have six aircraft come in, sometimes you have them lined up waiting to be reloaded and these aircraft only take up to three minutes to be reloaded with 3,000 litres of water,” he said.
“So it was an extremely busy day not only for the pilots of the fire-bombing aircraft but also for the ground crews who were loading the aircraft.”
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