retardant planes

Deer Creek Fire burning in hills near Tarkio in the Lolo National Forest

A fast moving fire sparked by downed power lines near Arlee was quickly attacked by several agencies, including the Salish and Kootenai Fire Division, Arlee Fire, the DNRC and the U.S. Forest Service. Spokesman Devlin LaFrombois said the fire was first reported at about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon on the Flathead Reservation...

Missoula’s Neptune Aviation is flying on fires in Arizona. It amazes me the skill and bravery the men who pilot the planes dropping retardant possess. They fly through smoke, heat and flames. You’ve got wonder how much of the heat from the fires reaches them...

This is some good news for some good people. The U.S. Forest Service has renewed it’s contracts with Neptune Aviation Services, Inc. Neptune will fly six P2Vs and one jet-powered BAe-146 under the contract renewals to help fight forest fires this year...