With over 14,000 lightning strikes recorded as thunderstorms swept across Oregon between August 4 and 12, firefighters suppressed 88 lightning fires on lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry. As lightning fires often start in remote areas, ODF also used specialty aircraft to aid in early detection efforts, including a special plane from Colorado.
After successful efforts in Oregon’s severe 2015 fire season, ODF again contracted with Colorado’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control to bring one of their Multi-Mission Aircraft (MMA) to Oregon to assist with finding difficult-to-detect fires.
The specialty aircraft flew across much of Eastern Oregon on Sunday and Monday. Early detection is critical to ODF’s mission keeping fires at the smallest possible size, which reduces the financial impact to landowners and Oregonians and limits impact to natural resources such as air, soil, and water quality, wildlife habitat, and aesthetic and recreation values.