A Ligonier native, based out of Tennessee, has been spending the last week on the West Coast, piloting a DC-10, to help fight the wildfires in Los Angeles.
In an exclusive interview with KDKA's Colin Dunlap, RK Smithley says it's unprecedented for them to be fighting fires anywhere in the United States, in January
“Working with about a dozen fixed-wing, large airtankers,” said Smithley. “We hammered the Palisades (fire) into submission, that fire’s essentially out, as is the Eaton. Flying over the Eaton Sunday/Monday, we didn’t even see smoke, we did not fly a single flight yesterday among six airplanes here.”
He says when it comes to aerial firefighting, the DC-10 is the largest tool available in the forest service arsenal.
The plane holds 9,400 gallons of fire retardant in three tanks on the bottom of the plane.
Smithley said the devastation left behind from the fires is “chilling.”
“It’s just a slap in the face, a punch in the mouth, whatever you want to call it when we’re orbiting over these devasted areas with thousands of structures, mainly houses, that are gone, realizing that lives have been turned upside down,” said Smithley.
He says the experience has left an indelible mark in his mind, one that he will never get rid of.
Garrett Smithley, RK's son, is a NASCAR driver.