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The drone, which authorities say was flying in restricted airspace on Jan. 9, put a fist-sized hole in the wing of a Super Scooper — a massive fixed-wing plane that can drop large amounts of water onto a fire.

Under a unified command among several fire agencies, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft had been made ready from several nearby jurisdictions, as well as from across the state, nation and Canada.

Brett Willis, Los Angeles Fire Department’s battalion chief over air operations, said there were at least three sizes of helicopters flying during the attack, including ones that can hold 480, 1,000, and 2,500 gallons of water, as well as the fixed-wing aircraft that primarily dropped retardant.

“Very quickly, we went from about three or four aircraft on a very quiet fire to 12 aircraft, with heavy heli-tankers, and prepping the air attack to order fixed-wing.”

By Saturday morning, fixed-wing planes joined in the fight.