Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Super Scooper water drop!
The most memorable battle scenes exist in the pivot — the moment when all appears to be lost and then, out of nowhere, the cavalry arrives. The fishing boats at Dunkirk. Union reinforcements at Gettysburg. Or, fictionally, the Riders of Rohan sweeping down on the besieged city of Gondor.
For Angelenos, the cavalry has arrived in the form of water drop videos.
For days, images from the horrendous series of wildfires that continue to consume huge swaths of Los Angeles have been devastating. People forced to flee their cars on Sunset Boulevard; sparks whipped by 80-mph winds igniting entire streets; firefighters hastening evacuations and confronting literal walls of flame; the smoking shells of homes and businesses.
These images shocked, terrified and aggrieved us. It was difficult not to feel helpless, hopeless, as the fires grew in size and number.
Then, as the ferocious winds began to die down on Wednesday, firefighters were once again able to take to the air, scooping up water from the ocean and reservoirs and dumping it on the fires. TV journalists caught some of the maneuvers on camera. Citizens filmed others on their phones. Everyone began posting and sharing them on social media.
Whether in Altadena, West Hills or Hollywood, the videos — call them firefighting fancams — depict firefighting pilots angling planes over flames that appear uncontrollable and releasing, with remarkable precision, gallons of water that douse raging infernos in a matter of seconds.
It is impossible not to cheer. And at this moment, Los Angeles needs something to cheer about.
For days, fire has been our worst enemy. Randomly killing and arbitrarily destroying, it has taken on near-supernatural dimensions, appearing at times to be laughing as it sped through brush and buildings, forcing thousands to flee.
Watching it be squashed into nothing but smoke and steam is an exhilarating thing. Thought you were unstoppable? Take that. Thought you were too big to be beaten? Yippee-ki-yay, motherf—!
To a city reeling with loss, water drop videos are “Battle of Britain” and Snoopy beating the Red Baron. They’re rebel pilots taking down the Death Star, Bill Pullman’s speech in “Independence Day,” LeBron James hitting a final-second three. Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men.”
The precision of the drops is astonishing, the impact heart-lifting, their moments of victory obvious and unquestionable.
The only thing missing are the job-done figures of the pilots walking away from their aircraft in vivid silhouette to a pounding bass accompaniment. For the simple reason that they are still hard at work.
But a grateful city sees them and has been offering viral shout-outs and admiration by posting water drop videos with the “Top Gun” soundtrack, sportscaster commentary and many, many applause emojis.
Two yellow Canadian Super Scoopers have been especially well-documented dropping water over the Palisades. One of them was grounded on Thursday after colliding with a civilian drone, and whoever was idiotic enough to illegally send one up during a firefight better hope the internet doesn’t find them before the feds do. These planes, helicopters and Super Scoopers are our heroes, providing support for the fearless, stretched-thin firefighters on the ground, helping to quench the Sunset fire before it claimed more homes and offering hope that at some point Los Angeles will cease to burn.
More important, the water drop videos have returned a feeling of control to the populace — and given us all something to root for.
Firefighters have been working nonstop since the Palisades fire exploded, and their efforts amid the smoke and flames have been lifesaving and heroic. It’s satisfying to watch the fruits of that hard work in the form of a fire all but extinguished before it claims yet another acre or snakes its way toward any more homes.
In fact, it’s the best thing any of us has seen in days.