Hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemical fire retardant were dumped from planes all over wildlands in Washington last fire season, more than almost anywhere in the West. And this summer’s even bigger fire season could see just as much of the crimson chemical slurry dumped on the landscape, if not more.
Retardant can save human lives, property and wildland habitat.
“It is a very important tool in the toolbox, for sure,” said Beth Lund, an incident commander with the U.S. Forest Service and veteran of 40 fire seasons, including the 110,000-acre Canyon Creek wildfire near John Day, Ore., this past summer. But fire retardant, she cautioned, is not a silver bullet.
“You always have to follow up with boots on the ground,” Lund said. “It doesn’t put the fire out. If you don’t follow it up, and just drop retardant, that is when it is not effective.” Aerial retardants are wasted in fires too big to quickly get crews into, or on terrain too rugged, or in winds too high and hot for the chemicals to even hit the ground, Lund said. “You get a fine mist.”
It also is a mistake to rely on aircraft, she cautioned, which can be fickle. “If the winds are too swift they can’t really fly, it’s not effective and it’s dangerous.”
Michael Medler, an associate professor in the department of environmental science at Western Washington University, says the environmental damage and the inappropriate use and overuse of aerial retardants concern him.