Above the roaring fires devastating parts of Los Angeles is an incongruous sight: air tankers dropping litres of bright red ...

The eye-popping substance coating streets, cars and surfaces is actually fire retardant, dropped by aerial firefighting tankers in massive plumes of red or pink. Unlike water drops, which target ...

The U.S. Forest Service bans the use of long-term fire retardant on federal lands near waterways or endangered species ...

The California fires, which have been ongoing since mid-week, are also being tackled by private firefighting units. These ...

Aircraft battling fires raging through the Los Angeles area are dropping more than water: Hundreds of thousands of gallons of ...

As fire crews and air tankers work to block the wildfires' explosive growth, images of red clouds of fire retardant falling onto trees are common. What is it — and what's in it?

The fight from above is critical in giving firefighters a chance to get some semblance of control over the fires, said one ...

Strong winds can make it too dangerous to fly at the low altitudes needed for drops and can dissipate the retardant before it hits the ground. Besides Cal Fire, multiple agencies have dropped fire ...