Currently, there are firefighters from some 41 states who have come to California to fight the over 1,000 fires that had been started by lightning.
Northern California has some of the most scenic spots in all the World, and now the fires are threatening the California Coastline near and around Big Sur where there is a lot of old growth and pristine beauty.
One difficulty is that many of the places they are fighting are inaccessible and thus must be fought from the air.
Unfortunately, they stop when nightfall comes because it is too dangerous, or so we are told.
However with all the new GPS systems and GIS data, that really is not the case anymore.
Nearly any airport can now be used at near zero-zero visibility for instrument approaches without an instrument landing system on the ground already in place.
Additionally, with AFF systems becoming state-of-the-art, these fire bombers could fly at night and continue dropping and fighting the fires, knocking the fires down significantly during the cooler night temperatures.
It seems in our haste for safety without risk, we are risking life and property, as well as our landscape known throughout the world as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
It's time we looked into this and used this technology to fight these fires.
Those who argue that it's not worth the risk or that it's too dangerous need to consider how many lives are lost when these huge fires are not put out and how many fire fighters risk their lives every day.
Think on it.