Planes launched from the Medford Air Tanker Base in Oregon have dropped 1.7 million gallons of fire retardant so far this year, breaking the airbase’s previous record set during the 2023 fire season.
The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest announced the new record on its Facebook page, stating, “330 loads of retardant have been delivered out of the Medford Air Tanker Base…. 230 loads were dropped out of the Large Air Tanker Base for 781,630 gallons, while the VLAT [Very Large Air Tanker] Base put out 100 loads for 891,112 gallons.”
Planes flying out of Medford this year have been dispatched 67 times across Oregon, 25 times to California, five times to Washington, and once each to Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Slurry bombers launched from Medford range from smaller single-engine air tankers (SEATs) to DC-10 VLATs with a 9,400-gallon retardant capacity.
