California's New Weapon Against Wildfires Is a Flame-Throwing 'Heli-Torch'

The Rocky Fire is a brute of a blaze, stretching over 67,000 acres 80 miles north of San Francisco and drawing a response of more than 300 fire engines and 3,400 personnel.

Given the bone-dry state of California, and the steep, hard-to-access terrain around the Rocky Fire, there’s a risk the conflagration (at only 20 percent contained) could see explosive development. Fortunately, emergency crews have an arsenal of tools to contain the inferno—one of them being specially equipped helicopters that sprays flames onto tinder below. The idea is to destroy dry vegetation in areas firefighters have trouble reaching, thus hindering the wildfire’s expansion.