Wildfire retardant flights under review; some ‘just painting stuff red’

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.