Hughes Fire: California Air National Guard releases video showing cockpit view of plane fighting fire

Dramatic video takes viewers inside the cockpit of a California Air National Guard plane being used to fight the rising Hughes Fire in Los Angeles County.

Footage shows the C-130J Super Hercules flying low dropping fire retardant as the the flames were raging Wednesday in Castaic, a community near Santa Clarita.

“Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) are the U.S. Forest Service’s portable fire retardant delivery systems and can be inserted into C-130 military aircraft without major structural modifications to convert them to air tankers when appropriate.” necessary,” the California Air National Guard said.

“They can dump their entire load of up to 3,000 gallons of retardant in less than five seconds, covering an area a quarter mile long by 100 feet wide, or they can perform variable drops,” he added. “Once a load is unloaded from a MAFFS-equipped aircraft and the aircraft lands at a tanker base, it can be reloaded in less than 12 minutes.”

HUGHES FIRE ONLY 14% CONTAINED AFTER BURNING 10,000 ACRES

A cockpit view shows California Air National Guard pilots flying through the Hughes Fire in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, Jan. 22. (146th Airlift Wing/California Air National Guard/TMX)

The Hughes Fire has burned more than 10,000 acres and remains only 14% contained, fire officials announced Thursday.

the fire, First reported Wednesday morning, it has spread rapidly due to aggressive winds that have affected firefighting efforts for weeks.

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Pilots approach the Hughes Fire in Castaic, California. (146th Airlift Wing/California Air National Guard/TMX)

More than 4,000 firefighters are assigned to the Hughes Fire, officials say.

“Weather is predominantly driving this fire and its spread at this time. A red flag warning remains in effect until 10 a.m. Friday,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said in a statement. . “It remains a fire that is difficult to contain, although we are gaining ground.”

Tanker trucks drop fire retardant on the front edge of the Hughes Fire in Castaic, California, on Wednesday, January 22. (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

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The fire forced about 50,000 people to evacuate and also caused temporary road closures on Interstate 5 on Wednesday.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.