A witness to the growing number of aircraft arriving into Arizona to fight the Mescal and Telegraph fires likened the response to ‘A small Air Force’ of responding aircraft.
The Telegraph Fire has burned a total of almost 85,000 acres stands at 34% contained, while the Mescal Fire has burned 70,000 acres with 23% containment as aerial firefighting resources continue to pour into the state, with assets from Coulson Aviation, Erickson Aero Tanker, Neptune Aviation, Bridger Aerospace, 10 Tanker Air Carrier, Aeroflite, Billings Flying Service, and many other smaller operations working from sun up to sun down on fighting the flames.
10 Tanker Air Carrier dispatched 910 and 914 to Arizona who are now based out of Mesa-Gateway airport, the only tanker base in the area large enough to accommodate the LAT’s. According to a social media post from the company, both aircraft have flown 39 missions and dropped 366,600 gallons of retardant thus far between the two aircraft on the Telegraph Fire which is so far the state’s 9th largest fire in history.
