Share Amy Gallagher spoke to a raft of experts involved in aerial firefighting research and active service, finding out more about the latest assets and resources that Colorado is pioneering and using to extinguish fires from the air
Legislation proposed by the Governor of Colorado in February 2021 includes a budget for the next fiscal year of US$78 million in wildfire-related expenditures. To help firefighters suppress wildfires, the budget allocated about $24 million toward the purchase of a new Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk helicopter, and an additional $3.8 million to spend on annual operating costs. It takes a big budget, and even more resources, to fight the wildland fires in Colorado, a state that saw a record number of fires during the 2020-2021 fire season.