Word: fire
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What the air tankers are dumping is a fire retardant known as slurry, a mixture of mostly water and fertilizer designed to protect trees and other flammable material from flames. The coating clings to vegeation and insulates it from the approaching inferno; the fertilizer helps the damaged areas regrow in the wake of the blaze. The powdery concoction is a key ingredient of a multi-pronged firefighting strategy; after the air drop, bulldozers and ground crews move in to cut a fire break designed to halt the advancing flames...
Slurry is dyed bright red to aid in visibility and help tanker pilots drop a seamless line of retardant. "Basically, they're trying to box in the fire," says Janet Upton of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), which is helping to battle the giant Station fire near Los Angeles. Another advantage of slurry is that unlike water, fertilizer doesn't evaporate. (It offers still another bonus for farmers, who have requested that unused slurry be dropped onto their fields as aircraft make their way home.) (Read a 1977 essay: "What Ever Happened to California...
...rugged areas, it's also extremely expensive. The U.S. Forest Service spent nearly $300 million battling blazes from the sky in 2007. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, it cost $368,645 to operate a single heavy-lift helicopter for one week during a recent fire (though choppers have a smaller capacity than large tanker planes, they're more maneuverable and can also ferry personnel and equipment). The cost of the retardant itself adds up as well; the Phos-Chek slurry used by Cal Fire costs about $2 per gallon, Upton says. Tankers can dump...
Aerial firefighting is also risky, as it often requires flying at low altitude through poor visibility. Nine people died in a helicopter crash during the Buckhorn fire in northern California last year, and last month a pilot died in the crash of a single-engine tanker near Reno, Nevada. (The Station fire has so far claimed the lives of two ground-based firefighters after their fire truck fell down a hillside.) Yet, as we're again reminded this year, tanker flights are favorite action shot of television news shows - California fire officials have dubbed them "CNN drops" - and that makes...
...most high-profile attack on an elected official in recent years, Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister survived a brush with death after gunmen opened fire on his official car in the heart of Islamabad on Wednesday. The minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, was shot in the leg, but is stable and undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital. The attack killed his driver...