SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA – The American Boeing 747 Supertanker was filmed dropping water on wildfires in Bolivia’s department of Santa Cruz on Friday. A record number of fires have been raging through the Amazon rainforest most of which is located in Brazil, but the fires also stretches into Bolivia and several other countries. The aircraft with a crew of 14 began its mission on Friday and is hired by the Bolivian government.
Wildfires have already scorched about 3,475 square miles in Bolivia alone, The Associated Press reported. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research said it has seen more than 75,000 fires this year, an 84% increase from last year.
Global SuperTanker’s president Dan Reese said to FOX Business: “This country is overwhelmed with an unprecedented number of large fires. The company has been flying at least 4 missions each day, since arriving in Bolivia on Thursday.”
Global SuperTanker Services’ 747 Supertanker
The 747 Supertanker is the world’s largest firefighting air tanker in the world and is also known as ‘The Spirit of John Muir’.
Colorado-based Global SuperTanker Services is using a converted Boeing 747-400 that can be dispatched at speeds of 600 mph carrying over 18,600 US gallons (70,000 liters) of water or fire retardant and can respond to wild fires anywhere in the western U.S. within 3 hours.
The 747 Supertanker has not only been battling many wildfires in California the last years, but this decade the aircraft was also deployed worldwide to battle wildfires in Israel, Chili and now Bolivia.
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(Photo: ShacharLA CC BY-SA 3.0)
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