Being buffeted by heat, smoke and wind as you hover 50ft over a conflagration, waiting for just the right moment and angle to unleash 360 gallons of water, and then returning to do it again and again, affords a unique perspective on wildfires. "It's a lot like war. The theories come from war fighting: massing of forces, anchoring and flanking, attacking when the enemy is weak," said Lopez, as the helicopter overflew ridges ravaged by fire last December, in the depth of supposed winter.