Destructive Power of Aerial Firefighting Gone Wrong – It Could Destroy Cars, Houses, and More

When it comes to putting out massive fires, luckily, tools have been developed to get the job done. When the blaze spreads, airplanes can be dispatched in the name of putting it out. One of the marvels of humanity is that we’ve come up with a way to create a plane that can unleash hundreds of thousands of pounds in water.

As one might imagine, that much water could really take a toll. Just imagine a massive amount of water like that dropped on you. It would probably destroy everything in sight and could probably even cause harm to one’s body.

Luckily, those behind these efforts have figured out a way to make them safer. If used properly, these planes can make short work of something that could otherwise take a ton of time. This time, we check in with an airplane designed to do just that. However, if mishandled, things could go awry quickly.

With this particular demonstration, the plane that we approach is capable of holding 9000 lbs of fire retardant. If released properly, they tell us that the drops are supposed to rain down lightly. However, challenges in terrain and conditions could mean that a drop doesn’t go according to plan. In the worst of situations, this liquid could be dropped from a low altitude. In the video below, we’re able to see the devastating effects of such an accident. It manages to completely shred an SUV to bits! Luckily, it appears as if this sort of situation isn’t very likely to happen.

While the plane in question is smaller, some of these aircraft, they say, is capable of dropping up to 170,000 lbs. With great power comes great responsibility. 170,000 lbs of water is certainly enough to put out a massive blaze. Thankfully, these pilots are highly trained to do just that. Otherwise, we would think that such a massive amount of water could cause some hurt.