Drop From Air Tanker Inadvertently Kills Fish
An air tanker fighting a wildfire in central Oregon accidentally dumped as much as 2,000 gallons of flame retardant into Fall River, killing nearly all of the fish along a four-mile stretch.
The chemicals also reached the Deschutes River above the central Oregon town of Sunriver.
“The water just went from crystal clear to opaque red,” said Steve Avery, a fisherman who was on the Fall River when the retardant flowed downstream Thursday afternoon. “We saw dead fish, everything from 8-inch hatchery red-sides to 24-inch brown trout. It was just awful.”
“Folks were fighting fire in the best way they could at the time,” a fish and wildlife official said. “It’s an unfortunate accident.”
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