A helicopter drops water on the High Park Fire, about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado. Officials have invested more than $30 million in fighting the blaze. Farther south near Colorado Springs, and in neighboring Utah, firefighters have relied on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to slow the Waldo Canyon and Wood Hollow fires.

The West largely relies on ice melt into the Colorado River Basin from the Rocky Mountains for its water supply. But the region is experiencing a dry, hot summer because those areas this year received less than 70 percent of the average snowfall, according to the USDA National Water and Climate Center. (Read more of the National Geographic News article: "Warm Spring May Mean Drought and Wildfires in West.")

And for more helicopter action, watch this video of a chopper pilot carrying 250-gallon baskets of water to fight a fire encroaching on his home town—from the National Geographic Channel's Alaska Wing Men: Fire Fight.

Wildfires

See photos of forest fires, smokejumpers, and wildfire damage and download free desktop wallpapers from National Geographic.