US Air Force’s F-35A fighter caught fire when the pilot started the engine during a training exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base in state of Idaho Friday.
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Since the fire started, DigitalGlobe has been using sibling satellites, including WorldView-3 which launched from the site two years ago, to capture images of South Base.
Officials said the fire did not pose an immediate threat to the base’s launch complex that fires satellites into space. Likewise, in 2014, another F-35 burst into flames due to catastrophic engine failure during an air festival in England in 2014, which led to the grounding of the U.S. fleet of test planes. Reported at 1:20 p.m., the fire is approximately 30 acres and spreading southward, according to base officials. It has burned 12,500 acres.
On Thursday, the Santa Barbara County Health Department and the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District extended its air quality warning through the weekend.
Another wildfire, likely sparked by a downed powerline, broke out and forced the evacuation of buildings on a large central California military base where the Canyon Fire has been burning all week, officials said. A wind-whipped fire in 1977 killed the base commander, the base fire chief, an assistant chief and a bulldozer operator.
He added, “Right now, we’ve got a good boundary on all sides of the fire”.
The WorldView-3 satellite boasts a short-wave infrared sensor which is able to pierce through smoke and see where fires are burning on the ground.
The Canyon Fire’s slow growth allowed incident commanders to divert firefighters to the new blaze. The cause was under investigation.
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Two additional aircraft, belonging to Norway and now stationed at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, have also been affected.
