PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, COLO. -- Local help is on the way to aid in putting out fires burning in New Mexico and Arizona.

Two Air Force Reserve C-130s equipped with Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) took off from Peterson Air Force Base Tuesday morning.

There were about 25 crew members onboard, who will fly to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The crews will then be deployed to whichever fire needs them most.

"We're just on call to drop the fire retardant on any of the fires that are in that area," Col. James VanHousen, U.S. Air Force Reservist and Commander of the 302nd Maintenance Group, said.

It's been a busy fire season so far for Colorado Air Force Reservists. This is the third time they have been called out to help.

"The first one was to fight fires in Mexico, which was a State Department request, then we fought fires in Texas, and now we're going down to fight fires in Arizona and New Mexico," VanHousen said.

The MAFFS have the ability to carry and drop 3,000 gallons of fire retardant.

"They can drop it out all at once, which takes less than seven seconds to drop it all at one time, or they drop it at half-second intervals. If they drop it all at once it covers about a quarter mile strip," VanHousen said.

Officials said these crews will be using second generation MAFFS, which are new and improved.

"The major improvement is we can now meter out the retardant, drop it at intervals instead of just one main drop. We can also adjust the density of the retardant," VanHousen said.

Crews are now able to control how much retardant they drop in certain areas.

"If we're dropping on tall trees we make it more dense, if it's just ground shrubs it would be less dense and we can cover longer distances," he added.

The teams will drop the fire retardant in front of the growing fires to help stop their spread and aid with containment.

"It helps the ground crew direct it away from resources, or homes, or cities, or into a less developed area," VanHousen said.

VanHousen said to put out a large wildland fire it takes both ground and air support.

"We can cover a lot of ground at one time, put it where they need it, when they need it, so it gives them an additional capability, but certainly it's not the only way to fight a fire, it takes both," he said.

Officials said the C-130s will make anywhere from six to eight drops a day.

"Maybe an analogy would be like a pit crew, where you've got stock car races, where the planes are coming in, loading them up, sending them out. They're going and dropping it on the fires and coming in and reloading them, and getting them back out throughout the day," Maj. Bo Shelton, a U.S. Air Force Reservist, said.

VanHousen said it takes the most experienced crews to be able to pull off these missions.

"We fly pretty low to the ground, and as slow as they can go in order to get the best dispersal on the retardant. Plus there's a lot of heat and turbulence and other aircraft in the area, so it's among the most strenuous flying that we can do, it's even more strenuous than combat flying," he said.

Officials said they are excited to see what the new MAFFS can do.

"More efficient, so it remains to be seen what we can do in a full fire fighting season, to see how much they drop on these areas and how many runs we'll have to do," said Shelton.

The Air Force Reserve is an all volunteer basis, and officials said the crews could be gone anywhere from a week to two weeks at a time.