Remarks: Despite its home base being just an hour and a half south of Reno I could never seem to catch Tanker 48. Finally after two years of trying I was able to get quite a few photos of 48, especially in the last few months of fire season due to the amount of fires in the area. One of those fires was the "Rush Fire", which burned a total 315,577 acres in Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada. The 271,911 acres burned in California means this fire was the second-largest fire in modern California history (since accurate record keeping began in 1932). Tanker 48 is shown here lifting off of runway 26 en route to the "Rush Fire" with the smoke from another Northern California fire, the "Chips Fire" making for a very hazy August afternoon.
Remarks: S/n: 147961 (mfr 1955) - Crashed Friday, October 3rd, 2003 enrought from Prescott to San Bernardino. My deepest condolences to the family of the two pilots who were both killed.
