About 1.3 million gallons of retardant have been dumped on fires in Central Oregon so far this year. That is a record.
It's not because we've had more acres burn this year, but because many of the fires, such as the Milli Fire, are close to homes. That's what made the Milli Fire a high-priority fire nationwide.
Retardant is most often used when wildfire threatens property. Luckily, the Milli Fire's location, not far from Redmond, is helping firefighters.
"Because of the proximity of the Redmond Air Tanker Base, we are very fortunate that runway, then dump, then come back to the runway -- that's a 25-minute turnaround," Forest Service Public Information Officer Kassidy Kern said Tuesday. "So when some of those really critical times when we needed that air resource, it was available to us."