Air Tankers Briefly Grounded After Drone Spotted Over San Bernardino Fire

Officials say they temporarily grounded air tankers for safety reasons after a hobbyist's drone flew near a huge forest fire in the San Bernardino National Forest.

Cal Fire's Daniel Berlant said a tanker was preparing to drop retardant Wednesday evening on the fire south of Big Bear when the pilot spotted the small remote-controlled device.

Officials ordered him and four other pilots to land over fears of possible collisions, but they were unable to find the drone's operator.

Berlant said a short time later, the pilot of a spotter plane saw another small drone flying over a different section of the fire.

"You could put somebody's life at stake," Cal Fire spokesperson Lynne Tolmachoff told KPBS. "This is something that we don't want to see continuing to happen throughout the summer."

Retardant-dropping flights resumed Thursday.

The blaze, named the Lake fire, is about 90 miles east of Los Angeles and has charred 33 square miles of timber and brush since June 17.

As California enters its fourth year of drought, Tolmachoff says crews have been dealing with aggravated fire conditions.

"Fires are starting a lot quicker, they're spreading more rapidly, and there's plenty of fuel out there to burn," she said. "One of our priorities is keeping hobbyist drones out of our fire-fighting space."