London, Sept 17: Fires like those that ravaged Greece in August would be easier to combat if more and bigger aircraft could be used, unmodified, to drop water, a US timber company has said.

Weyerhaeuser has said it is developing 1.2-metre-wide PVC bags - each of which can hold 900 kilograms of water and fire retardant.

Each bag is packaged in a box whose lid becomes a parachute when the bag is pushed from a plane's cargo ramp.

Ripcords attached to the parachute then pull upwards, unzipping the bag and releasing the water at an altitude of about 70 metres, reports New Scientist.

Weyerhaeuser said while a C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry 16 such bags, the huge C-17 Globemaster III could double that. (With Inputs from ANI)