More than two weeks after the Holiday Farm Fire erupted across the McKenzie Highway Corridor, fire crews are steadily gaining on the blaze.
Marcus Kauffman of the Oregon Forestry Department is spokesman for the incident team. He says the weather’s more like fall now, the smoke has largely dissipated, and that’s all allowed better air support.
“Since the air has cleared, we’ve been flying a whole bevy of helicopters, and mostly just doing bucket drops," he told KLCC.
"And what those bucket drops do for us is that they cool the flames, they slow its growth, and that gives our crews an opportunity to get in there and build line next to it, because it’s a little cooler and it’s not going to move on us.”
Nearly a thousand personnel from 18 states and Canada are involved in reigning in the Holiday Farm Fire, as well as 120 National Guard troops.
The Holiday Farm Fire’s consumed over 170,000 acres and caused one fatality.
Copyright 2020, KLCC.
