Air tankers stalled from fighting Milepost 97 Fire

MEDFORD, Ore. — Over at the Medford Air Tanker Base, crews have been heading out all afternoon to fight the flames at the Milepost 97 fire.

One of the air tankers can carry 3,000 gallons of fire retardant.

There are four air tankers ready to go, one in Medford and the others in Roseburg and Redmond.

All four are being sent to the fire in Douglas County.

Friday morning, planes were grounded and unable to head to Canyonville to fight flames. That’s because the smoke in the air was too thick and it was dangerous to fly.

Everybody at the base was waiting to get the call for take-off.

And that afternoon, they did.

“Not only here at the airport but the path to the fire and then the fire itself, those three legs of the mission all need to be clean air for those pilots to operate safely,” said Justin Bohannan, manager of the Medford Air Tanker Base.

He says the four planes will be going back and forth from the fire burning in Canyonville to the air tanker base in Medford.

It’s a 30-minute round-trip.

When a plane lands at the base, they try to fill it with new fire retardant in just 8 minutes.

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