Deputy Chief Mike Hussey of Jackson County Fire District 3 recognized his firefighters just couldn’t move fast enough as they tried to try to flank the roaring Almeda fire to get ahead of it.
Their ground attack was overwhelmed by the speed and intensity of the wind-fueled wildfire tearing north from Ashland along the Bear Creek greenway and Interstate 5.
They needed air support.
Hussey made the request about an hour and a half into the fire on the Tuesday after Labor Day. It went up the chain of command to Dave Larson, who oversees aerial fire operations in southwest Oregon as district forester for Oregon Department of Forestry.
Read more on this story at Oregon Live
