Fire crews are days into a challenging battle against a firestorm in Los Angeles, and one of the critical tools in the fight has been the effort from above. Enter the CL-415 Super Scooper – one of the world’s most effective firefighting aircraft – capable of skimming the surface of open bodies of water. The Canadian-made amphibious water bombers can quickly scoop up large amounts of water and drop them directly above the flames.

Super Scoopers can carry far heavier loads than helicopters equipped with buckets, and – unlike air tankers, which have also been deployed in the L.A. fires – they can replenish their water reserves without landing. That means they can dispense vast quantities of water on a continuous loop until they run out of fuel.

Here’s what to know.

– – –

The facts

– The Super Scooper skims the water’s surface at 100 mph, collecting 1,600 gallons in under 12 seconds. The pilot drops the load directly above the wildfire, then circles back to repeat the process.

– The government of Quebec has loaned two Super Scoopers to L.A. officials on a seasonal basis to help combat wildfires, and has been doing so for more than 30 years.

– Of the two, only one is currently operational. The other was temporarily grounded after a civilian drone flying above the Palisades Fire damaged its wing, the L.A. Fire Department said Friday. It is a federal crime to interfere with firefighting efforts by flying a drone.

– – –

How does the Super Scooper work?

The Super Scooper, with a wingspan of 93 feet and a length of 65 feet, is designed to drop a large volume of water directly above a wildfire in an effort to extinguish or contain it. The water can also be mixed with a foam concentrate to make its drops more efficient.

What distinguishes the CL-415 from other fire-attacking planes, which typically drop fire retardant, is its ability to replenish its tank without needing to land. It does this by scooping water directly from the surface of the ocean or body of freshwater.

To fill the water tank, the pilot flies the aircraft at about 100 mph, positioning it to skim along the water’s surface. Through a probe, the aircraft scoops the water into a tank, filling it to its 1,600-gallon capacity within 12 seconds. It can also be filled by fire hoses at an airfield before takeoff, allowing it to fly directly to the drop-off point.

Once filled (and weighing 13,500 pounds more), the aircraft flies to the wildfire at around 220 mph to drop its load from a height of 100 to 150 feet.

The pilot presses a button on the steering wheel to open the tank, either depositing the entire water load in one go (a “salvo drop”) or opening the four doors sequentially to disperse the water over a wider area more evenly.

The speed with which the Super Scooper can replenish its water tanks – repeating the process until it runs out of fuel – makes it a “phenomenal” tool for fighting fires, the Los Angeles County Fire Department has said.

– – –

How many Super Scoopers are being deployed to combat the L.A. wildfires?

So far, the L.A. County Fire Department has deployed two Super Scoopers to combat the fires, one of which is grounded as a result of damage from a drone. Both Super Scoopers were provided by the government of Quebec. L.A. County has leased two Super Scoopers from Quebec on an annual basis for 30 years.

On Friday, SOPFEU, the Canadian nonprofit that provides the Super Scoopers in collaboration with the government of Quebec, said it was providing two additional CL-415s to Los Angeles, as well as two pilots, two co-pilots and technicians. According to SOPFEU, departure is scheduled for Wednesday, depending on the weather.

– – –

How do other fire-attacking aircraft compare with the Super Scooper?

The Super Scooper is among an array of firefighting aircraft, including helicopters and air tankers, that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and the L.A. County Fire Department have deployed to combat the blazes.

Cal Fire maintains over 60 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, making it the world’s largest civil aerial firefighting fleet, by its own measure.

Similar to Super Scoopers, fire-attacking helicopters can collect water using buckets and drop the load directly above a fire, albeit at lower volumes and with less efficiency than the Super Scooper. The helicopters can collect only freshwater – saltwater corrodes their pipes – preventing them from replenishing from the Pacific Ocean, which the Super Scoopers can do.

Air tankers of varying sizes are also being used to drop fire retardant in the path of the fires in an attempt to stop them from spreading. Cal Fire’s fleet includes the larger C-130 Hercules air tankers, capable of deploying 4,000 gallons of fire retardant, as well as the smaller Grumman S-2T air tankers, capable of dropping 1,200 gallons. These need to return to one of 14 air tanker bases throughout California after every drop to replenish supplies.

On Friday, the National Interagency Fire Center said it had deployed eight military C-130s, converted into air tankers and equipped with the U.S. Forest Service’s Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems. The aircraft can drop up to 3,000 gallons of fire retardant in less than 10 seconds, it said.

At a news conference Saturday evening, Cal Fire Operations Chief Christian Litz said that more than 34 helicopters and 10 large air tankers were dropping water and retardant on the Palisades Fire. The same evening, Cal Fire said it had deployed 15 helicopters and an unspecified number of air tankers in efforts to suppress the Eaton Fire.

“We have been using all these aircraft on these fires these past days,” Litz said. “We always prepare for events to happen – wind shifts, change in the environment – so that we’re ready to respond to any new starts around the fire’s edge.”

(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Leo Sands