VIDEO: It’s only the first week of July, and fire season is already well underway in the Pacific Northwest.
The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) held its annual fire boss training on Tuesday with local employees and firefighters to make sure resources on both the air and the ground are prepared for the coming days.
Ground crews made up of employees from ODF and the Hillsboro and Clackamas Fire Departments got the chance to practice communicating with planes about where exactly to drop water on fires.
A pair of Air Tractor 802's, normally used for agriculture purposes, flew over Hagg Lake to demonstrate scooping up the hundreds of gallons of water--normally about 600 gallons for each plane. “More so now than at any time in my career, the wildland fire environment is changing,” said long-time ODF employee Wally Waible, who participated in the training.