A firefighting plane flying over the Palisades fire in Los Angeles collided with a civilian drone on Thursday, officials said, putting the plane out of service and further stretching the resources available to battle the raging fires in Southern California.
The plane landed safely after the incident, said the Federal Aviation Administration, which will investigate the episode. The collision punctured a wing and put the plane out of commission, said Chris Thomas, a Cal Fire spokesman.
The blazes that broke out this week in the Los Angeles area were fueled by fierce winds that initially prevented aircraft from taking off safely. Once conditions improved, dozens of helicopters and planes joined the fight to contain the fires. More were on the way Thursday night, the authorities said.
The plane involved in the collision on Thursday is a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper, leased by the Los Angeles County Fire Department from the Canadian province of Quebec, said Kenichi Haskett, a department spokesman. The department said on social media that the collision on Thursday, at around 1 p.m., involved a civilian drone.
The CL-415 can fly very low and scoop up water to dump on fires, according to its maker, De Havilland Aircraft of Canada. Mr. Thomas, the Cal Fire spokesman, said the Super Scooper holds 1,600 gallons and can refill in about five minutes.
In an hour, even if a refill takes 10 minutes, “that’s six water drops,” he said while discussing the setback to firefighting efforts. “So whose house is not going to get that water to protect it?”
The F.A.A. has imposed temporary flight restrictions in the Los Angeles area while firefighters work to contain the fires. The agency said Thursday that it has not authorized anyone who is not involved in the firefighting operations to fly drones in the restricted zones. Despite that, many videos of wildfire areas that appear to be from drones have been posted on social media this week.
Flight restrictions are often imposed by the F.A.A. when wildfires break out, and the authorities have warned for years about the threat posed by drones to firefighting aircraft. In September, at least two drone incursions were reported as firefighters battled the Line fire in Southern California.
Drone sightings force the authorities to ground firefighting aircraft for a minimum of 15 minutes and for as much as 30 minutes while they confirm it is safe to fly again, Mr. Thomas said.
“We have a saying: ‘If you fly, we can’t,’” he added. “But I don’t know how effective it is because everybody thinks it’s so cool to fly a drone up through the fire.”
Disrupting firefighting on public lands is a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, according to the F.A.A., which said it can also impose a civil penalty of up to $75,000 on a drone pilot who interferes with efforts to suppress wildfires.
