BOZEMAN — Think about your typical day at the office. You might get to work in the morning and pour a cup of coffee. Well, for the folks at Bridger Aerospace, their day at work looks a little different.
“My 9-5? People use the phrase ‘putting out fires.’ Well, that's what we actually do,” says Sam Davis.
Sam Davis is the CEO of Bridger Aerospace. Based in Bozeman, these firefighters provide air support for wildfires year-round—and not just in Montana.
“This year, we’ve flown everywhere from Tennessee to California for the Palisades fire. From Texas to Alaska,” shares Sam.
Bridger Aerospace was founded in 2014, but the real firefighting didn’t start until 2020, when they built a fleet of six CL-415EAF Super Scoopers.
“We own the largest private fleet of scoopers in the world,”
Sam told me.
The scoopers provide fire suppression by dropping water. Bridger also provides fire detection using equipment like mapping sensors.
“It picks up thermal signatures in real time that could be the size of a basketball and wouldn’t be visible to the human eye,” Sam said as he showed me a sensor.
I asked Sam why the Bridger Aerospace hangar was so quiet when I visited.
“They’re all out flying just south of Bozeman. There’s a fire south of Big Sky called the West Fork fire. We have two scoopers actively scooping and dropping water on that fire, and also the Bivens Creek fire. Two scoopers are on that fire as well,” shared Sam.
The scoopers are hard at work, grabbing water from Hebgen Lake for the West Fork fire, which is now burning at around 421 acres. Ruby River Reservoir is being used for the Bivens Creek fire, now at 2,200 acres. If you’re curious how much water these planes are carrying:
“They can fill their tanks in about 10 to 12 seconds by scooping or skimming the water, and they have 1,412-gallon tanks,” Sam informed me.
WATCH: Bridger aerospace battles Montana wildfires with world’s largest private scooper fleet
These scoopers run on a fuel cycle of four hours. Sam tells me, with headquarters being in Bozeman, it’s convenient having that fuel stop in their backyard.
“It makes us really effective, being able to get there quickly, stay out there all day long, and continue to drop water.”
Since Wednesday, Bridger Aerospace has dropped over 120,000 gallons of water on the West Fork fire. In a day, they’ve already dropped over 25,000 gallons on Bivens Creek.
“We’re proud to be a part of the response in Montana right now, with all the fires that are happening—to be local and to be part of the solution to help,” shared Sam.
