Much like the air tanker base at Medford, Oregon, the Redmond, Oregon base also had a busy summer this year.
Below is the beginning of an article in The Bulletin:
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“Crews at Redmond Air Center’s tanker base loaded nearly 1 million gallons of retardant into air tankers this fire season, contributing to a huge year for the five large tanker bases in the Northwest.
“I think (the amount of retardant used) just shows that it was a really busy year here in Oregon and Washington,” said Maurice Evans, manager at the Redmond Air Center. Located at Redmond Airport, the Redmond Air Center houses a tanker base — where air tankers pick up fuel and retardant — a smokejumper base and the Redmond Hotshots’ home base.
The Redmond Air Center used 950,797 gallons of retardant this year, according to a U.S. Forest Service report detailing retardant use for the fire season. Air tankers dropped the retardant in 362 loads, with a cost of more than $1.9 million. Throughout the Northwest, air tankers dropped 5,491,895 gallons of retardant in 2,028 loads this fire season, costing more than $11 million combined…”