Wednesday, August 23, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
25
The Nugget Newspaper Crossword
By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service
PHOTO BY CODY RHEAULT
An air tanker makes a retardant drop to slow the progress of the Milli Fire
west of Sisters.
What air power can —
and can’t — do on a fire
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
There’s no more impres-
sive sight than a heavy tanker
swooping out of the smoke
over a forest fire, dropping a
vivid red smear of retardant.
For local residents, it’s com-
forting to hear the tankers
rumbling over the rooftops
to do battle with the smoky
monster that looms on the
horizon over their town.
The sheer power and maj-
esty of the aerial assault leads
many people to believe that
retardant drops can stop a
raging blaze. While air power
is critical to the battle, it can’t
win it on its own.
The key to understanding
the role of retardant drops on
a fire lies in the word itself:
Retardant retards the prog-
ress of fire — it doesn’t put
it out.
Sisters Ranger District
Assistant Fire Management
Officer Jinny Reed told The
Nugget that, “Retardant is
primarily utilized when life
and property are threatened.
Retardant can slow fire pro-
gression to allow ground
resources the opportunity to
safely contain the progres-
sion of a wildfire along the
fires edge, and sometimes at
the head. If applied properly,
it can reduce fire intensity to
a level acceptable for dozers
and handcrews to contain for-
ward spread.“
That’s why viewers will
often see that smear of retar-
dant going down out ahead
of the fire instead of right
in it. The retardant is being
used by ground forces to help
them build containment lines.
“Aerial retardant is only
effective when utilized in tan-
dem with ground forces such
as dozers and handcrews,”
Reed said.
In fact, retardant drops
won’t be made if there aren’t
ground resources available to
exploit them.
Retardant drops work bet-
ter in some terrain than in
others.
“It is most effective in
grass and shrub vegeta-
tion types,” Reed reported.
“Retardant is less effective in
timber vegetation types.”
Tankers are not always
available. There are a limited
number of them across the
country and they’re allocated
based on a priorty system that
assesses threats to lives and
property. Sometimes tank-
ers working a fire in Sisters
Country will be called away
to a higher-priority fire.
Fire conditions can also
dictate whether or not retar-
dant can be used.
“Retardant cannot be uti-
lized if visibility is poor (or)
during high winds,” Reed
said.
So, while retardant drops
from tankers are a critical —
and spectacular — tool for
firefighters, the battle is not
won in the air. It’s fought out
on the ground, by the men
and women hauling hose,
wielding chainsaws and cut-
ting on a firebreak line.
Retardant drops can also
have negative environmen-
tal effects, so air operations
commanders have to be cau-
tious about their deployment
in sensitive areas.
Kassidy Kern of the
Deschutes National Forest
reported that a retardant
drop deployed near the rim
of Whychus Creek Canyon
to fight the Milli Fire as it
roared toward the east prob-
ably came in a second or two
early.”
As a result, she said, “up
to 140 gallons of retardant
probably made its way into
Whychus Creek.”
She said that a fisheries
biologist patrolled the area
to assess damage and found
no fish kill or other adverse
effects.
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