Minnesota companies are changing the strategy for fighting wildfires around the world and they're saving taxpayers a lot of money.
We've all seen crop-dusters flying low to spray a farm field. But you probably haven't seen those same planes flying low to put out a wildfire.
John Schwenk is an old crop duster who never thought he would be fighting wildfires.
"No I did not, no. It just came along by circumstance," he said.
Schwenk is the former owner of Aero Spray in Appleton, Minnesota. The company is now called Dauntless Air. He specialized in flying the Air Tractor AT-802. It's built in Texas and is known as the world's most powerful agriculture aircraft.
Then in 2003, Wipaire, a third generation family business in South St. Paul, put the 802 on floats and the Fire Boss was born.