One of the types of aircraft used to fight Southern Calif. wildfire, a 737 Air Tanker:
This is a link to photos of some other aircraft in the SoCal wildfire fighting arsenal:
Photos of firefighting aircraft on the Elizabeth Fire in southern California --
https://fireaviation.com/2020/06/17/...rn-california/
Other craft are sometimes obtained by local county, state, or, even Federal authorities, either borrowed or leased, from outside sources, as needed and if available; in a situation as we're in now, with fires spread over so much of the state and of such severity, the opportunities for added air support are diminished...
In regards to the size vs. effectiveness issue, payload can often be a secondary consideration; depending on terrain and extent of a blaze, size of craft can be a liability; larger craft mean greater speeds in flight at the loss of some maneuverability; in mountainous terrain, much larger craft cannot easily maneuver in close enough for pinpoint drops and, dropping retardant from a necessarily higher altitude cause the drops to often miss their mark; smaller aircraft are also better capable of dealing with surprise currents and drafts caused by changing micro-climates caused by the fires and respond with greater ease and safety; additionally, smaller aircraft are more versatile in accessing water sources: a helicopter can hover over nearby lakes, etc., to draw into their tanks and some other small fixed-wing craft can skim over the surfaces of larger lakes to scoop up water for their tanks, while the very large craft often have to land, be filled, and then take off, costing time in firefighting efforts...
Regardless, of the type or size of craft, the efforts of those who fly and maintain the craft is to be greatly appreciated...
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