What is the orange material that I see them spraying out of the helicopters onto these huge wildfires?

Question

It's kind of a reddish-orange color. Do they also use water...or will water just not accomplish much in those situations?

Answer 1

Flame retardant is often used to fight fire. This could be a foaming agent that makes the water more "sticky" so it would be more effective at putting out the fire.
Foaming agent is usually added in small quantity to a large volume of water. The coloring agent is so that the pilot would have a visual cue as to what area was treated so as to not waste the next load on top of the first.

Answer 2

It is called "foscheck". It is water with chemicals added to make it flame retardant when it is wet and when it dries. They often do not apply it directly on the fire but ahead of it to make a fire retardant line, this is called "painting a line". It is orange colored so that the pilots can see it and where they have already laid it. It is usually only dropped from airplanes as they have to land to reload anyways. Helicopters usually only drop water and they drop directly on the flames.

Answer 3

Napalm