It's mostly caused by the length of the fire seasons. Most pilots qualified to fly want to fly doing this for a summer season say from Spring until August or less because this is very dangerous work and one mistake and you are dead. So, each time you go up is a further risk to your life. Doing this 12 months a year isn't really safe for anyone to do. So, you have to have some of the same qualifications as either a bomber pilot or a stunt pilot (likely both). You have to be aware of what wind currents are going to do to your plane both loaded and unloaded. The most dangerous times are when you are loaded with water or chemicals to put out the fires then when you release those chemicals or water you are going to suddenly have a lot more lift so you have to compensate for that too. So, likely the most dangerous time would be when you drop your load and it doesn't release because you might not be able to pull out of your dive before you hit the ground. So, unless you allow for this possibility you might not survive your drop if it fails to drop. Then updrafts and down drafts around a fire area are merciless (both) so you have to be prepared for almost any eventuality. If you are a lesser experienced pilot than this then you are just dead and that's all. So, the problem is having enough qualified pilots who can stay alive doing this year around now just are not presently available. And this becomes the problem we see now.
So, there aren't enough pilots good enough to do this who are willing to at this point which means fires are going to be more of a problem (except for summer months when good pilots are available) who can stay alive and do this.
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