DENVER — Colorado’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) told Denver7 Investigates the state’s entire fleet of firefighting aircraft is being used to battle ongoing fires, except for one.
One of the state’s two multi-mission aircraft (MMA), used to find and map ongoing fires, experienced a mechanical issue at Grand Junction Regional Airport on August 1, according to the agency.
“It’s going to be down for an unknown period of time while we do some repair,” said DFPC Chief Vaughn Jones.Both MMAs were out of commission for days; however, the second one is expected to be back up by Friday afternoon to collect data and intelligence on fires, according to Jones.
Last month, Denver7 Investigates learned that the renowned Firehawk helicopter, which came into service in 2024, was out of commission for roughly two weeks in July due to required maintenance after hitting 500 hours of flight time.
