Air tanker pilot dropped retardant on his own neighborhood

A month later the DC-7 retired from firefighting

Ameda Fire, Sept. 8, 2020
Almeda Drive Fire, Sept. 8, 2020. KDRV photo.

In lining up the DC-7 air tanker for his first retardant drop on the Almeda Drive Fire southeast of Medford, Oregon on September 8, 2020, Pilot Scot Douglas looked out of the window of Tanker 60 and saw his wife and daughter hosing down their yard. The fire was spreading north toward his neighborhood pushed by 40 to 45 mph winds out of the southeast. The wind aligned with the Interstate 5 corridor as it burned through communities like a blowtorch for 8 miles, starting north of Ashland and tearing through the cities of Talent and Phoenix.

map Almeda Drive Fire
Map of the Almeda Drive Fire

His neighborhood was evacuated. His family went to Ashland with friends and he spent that night in a Medford motel. It wasn’t until he made more drops the next day that he saw his home had survived.

DC-10 dropping Almeda Fire Oregon September 8 2020
DC-10 dropping on the Almeda Drive Fire in southern Oregon. Screenshot from video by Helga Descloux September 8, 2020.

It is not common for air tankers to drop on densely populated communities. Former Oregon Department of Forestry District Forester Dave Larson told KDRV that as homes started to burn in large numbers and thousands of residents became threatened, he had to make a quick decision.

“It was a fast-moving fire,” says Larson, “and those resources like the air attack were in the air over by the Grizzly Fire and immediately diverted that call because of the conditions that day.”

“With the air tankers it’s pretty rare to drop on cities,” says Larson, “that way it came down to a tactic. Because of evacuations, trying to slow the fire down and steer it away from people trying to get out of there because the roads were closed.”

Although the residential areas where the air tankers dropped were not under ODF jurisdiction, Larson gave the order anyway as officials on the ground and in the sky saw the increasing threat to human lives.

On November 19, 2020 Jackson County authorities estimated that 2,357 residences were destroyed in the 3,200-acre Almeda Drive Fire.

structures burned Almeda Drive Fire Phoenix Talent Oregon
Devastation from the Almeda Drive Fire in the area of Phoenix and Talent in southern Oregon. Screenshot from video shot by Jackson County on September 8, 2020.

Five weeks later on October 14 Tanker 60, a DC-7B (N838D), completed its last season as an aerial firefighting machine and departed from Medford, Oregon when the contract with the state of Oregon ended. Tim Crippen, who took the photo below, said it gave a wing wave to the tanker base as it passed by en route to Madras, Oregon.

air tanker 60 DC-7B retires
Tanker 60, a DC-7B, retires from firefighting. Photo by Tim Crippin October 14, 2020.

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