No wonder California is always on fire.
Is this even a serious question? Because a freaking helicopter that shoots fire is Awesome! Every state should have one. I want one myself!
Unfortunately this is not a flamethrower helicopter.
I’ve seen drones with flamethrowers used to clear brush and trash from powerlines.
Cause, you fight fire with fire.
if you don’t understand burning firebreaks - ooof…
That’s water you stupid bas—
[notices where I am]
Excellent work, carry on.
Stupid Bassoon player?
perchance.
We can ask this question from the other direction: why doesn’t everywhere else have a flamethrower helicopter?
Woke libs cancelled their flammencopters
What, you didn’t think those huge forest fires occur because of things like, oh, I dunno, climate change or poor management and not allowing smaller natural fires to occur to temporarily benefit some overly rich assholes living in forested areas?
No, flamethrower helicopters!
We actually use them to clear homeless encampments. Sure, it burns down half the city with the encampment, but it’s a small price to pay to make our homeless even more miserable <3
Reject climate action
Embrace flamethrower helicopters
This is funny but the helicopters are probably meant for controlled burn stuff, but I have no first hand knowledge about this.
…You got one thing right
I have no firsthand knowledge of this
Hope you never see an idiot throw flour or powdered milk at an open flame.
unpasturised powdered milk
Is that even relevant?
The day after taco bell
ate day and a half old pizza last night that gave me upset stomach. Can confirm. I am dieing 😭
They’re called “Fire Men”
Next step: Fighter Jets with flamethrowers.
I am heavily disappointed at humanity for not coming up with it until now.
Ok, figuring out how to project a stream of fire ahead of a jet traveling at MACH Speed would be an interesting engineering exercise.
Ok now, hear me out. Take a ramjet, and stick it on the accelerant nozzle.
Jungle jelly
Wait, they made a flame throwing helicopter?
Perhaps I have misjudged you, California.
looks at their rifles
Never mind, I judged correctly the first time.
Cool helicopter though!
Jokes aside, setting shit on fire is a legit firefighting tactic: The idea is to burn off all the fuel before the actual wildfire can reach it, forming a barrier the fire cannot easily spread over.
High winds obviously complicate this, but it can still work under the right circumstances.
Also a legit forestry tactic - you set a controlled fire in a part of the forest, and keep it well-controlled, to burn off leaf litter and dead wood that would otherwise easily fuel a wildfire, and to encourage the growth of some species (or discourage others - burning is the only effective way to stop some invasive plant species).
The ecology of California in general, and in particular the Sierra Nevada, has evolved to expect a wildfire every 10 years or so. Going 100 years (in some places) without a fire was completely beyond anything that ecology had evolved for, and it’s no wonder that those areas that hadn’t burned in a century got slate-wiped. The native Americans, and later the herdsmen who took over their lands, benefitted from these small vegetation burns and would frequently start and manage them. In the early 1900s, though, the feds (with good intentions, mind) came along and said you can’t do that anymore because fire is always bad.
Planting a ton of Eucalyptus trees in the 1890s-1910s, that self ignite when they get too dry didn’t help matters either. Worst part is those trees were planted for the railroad. Once the tree is smoldering they explode with sticky burning sap.
Holy crow, I had no idea that they secrete a sticky sap when they burn, nor that they were planted for the railroad. I always heard it was because John Steinbeck liked them / made them popular. Do you have a source so I can learn more?
This photograph appears to be a helicopter dropping fire retardant on a fire.
Not the hard R, that’s a war crime
Damn, bro dropping the r word 😐
Bet you’re the life of the party bud
That seems a horrifically cruel and ableist way to fight fires! Not to mention ineffective.
muh firecopter!
The right for Californians to have airborne incendiary delivering capabilities for home defense shall not be impeached! What’s the matter with you? Don’t you support the 2nd amendment? /s
