The Sedona Airport is a staging point for a team of aerial firefighters with Columbia Helicopters battling wildfires in Northern Arizona.
The crew flies a heavy-lifting helicopter that can fight fire with efficiency: A dual-engine Columbia CH-47D Chinook that measures 100 feet in length with two propellers.
The aircraft boasts a 2,800-gallon internal water tank that can drop the water on a blaze in less than four seconds and can be refilled in less than 60. In addition to the internal water tank, the chopper is equipped to use buckets. It can lift, carry and deploy up to 2,650 gallons of water, chemical retardants or a mixture of the two on a wildfire. The buckets carry high-speed water pumps that can quickly fill the bucket from water sources as shallow as 18 inches.