North America's wildfire season is getting stronger and longer every year. Take, for example, the massive conflagration currently raging through the Canadian oil city of Fort McMurray in Alberta, which has burned over 500,000 acres and lead to the evacuation of 80,000 people since it started on May 1.

One response to these bigger fires is to build bigger, faster firefighting tools. And last week, a young Colorado Springs-based company called Global SuperTanker Services debuted the biggest, fastest one yet: a converted Boeing 747-400 equipped with a tank that can hold 19,600 gallons of fire retardant—nearly double the size of the tank in the next largest airtanker. The plane, named the Spirit of John Muir, can cruise at speeds up to 600 miles per hour for as far as 4,000 nautical miles and get to any fire in the western U.S. in a few hours.

The aircraft, which cost more than $10 million to purchase and outfit, made its first successful test drop in early May in Arizona, then conducted a flyby performance in front of crowds last week in Colorado Springs. It’s expected to receive certification soon and begin operation in the field by late June. It's a larger, modernized version of a plane originally designed by Oregon’s now-defunct Evergreen Aviation. (Global SuperTanker Services purchased the old plane’s patents, systems, and certificates.) “People are living closer and closer to forested areas and now a fire that would have burned itself out years ago will burn a thousand homes,” says Jim Wheeler, president and CEO of Global SuperTanker Services, which has been working on the airtanker since September. “There’s now an even bigger need to arrest these fires.”

Sounds impressive. But there's no guarantee it'll do much to reduce the threat of wildfires near urban areas.

Timothy Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service and the co-director of the Association for Fire Ecology, says that chemical retardants—which are designed to slow the rate of fire spread, not extinguish it— aren't very ecologically friendly, and not that effective on large, raging burns. Plus they're wildly expensive to drop from an airplane.

Approximately 15 firefighters were trained with the tool during the session, while 58 members of the department have been trained to use the tool in total, Deputy Chief Timothy R. Smith said.

The department’s current extrication tools are powered by a generator located on a fire truck. The new tool is battery powered and can operate independently of the truck. It is not bound by hoses or cables.

Two out-of-service suburban utility vehicles were used for Tuesday’s training. Deputy Chief Smith said the new tool will not replace the standard generator-powered extrication tools, but it will allow for a quicker response to incidents in which fire officials need to create access to a damaged vehicle.

The company said Tuesday Full Scale Boulder Wildland Urban Interface Exercise participants on Friday and Saturday will use tools PAR Government Systems designed to help incident managers track crew locations, the geography and movement of fire and weather changes.

One North County Fire Department firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor injuries while two others on the rig were not injured. Cal Fire Capt. Kendal Bortisser said. The 33-year-old pickup driver, from Escondido, was uninjured. The collision occurred about 7:30 a.m. when the firefighters were heading south on the highway to check on a reported brush fire near Old Castle Road in Valley Center, CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt said. The fire engine’s emergency lights and siren were on.