City airport supporting range fire suppression efforts

Single-engine air tankers, or SEAT, aircraft carry up to 800 gallons of red-tinted fire retardant. It takes just four seconds to empty that retardant on range fires, including those that continue to scorch parts of southern Idaho.

With range fires continuing to scorch parts of southern Idaho, the Mountain Home airport is helping support efforts aimed at controlling these blazes.

Since late June, the airfield has served as the base of operations for single-engine air tankers, or SEAT, aircraft that are continuing to fight range fires that are raging out of control across this part of the state.

The Bureau of Land Management contracted with a company based out of Louisiana to have aircraft and ground crews stationed at the city airport during the summer, said airport manager Ted Thompson. The first aircraft arrived here June 28 with their mission focused on containing the Sand Point and Centennial fires near Hammett, which combined had scorched more than 26,000 acres before they were contained by the evening of June 30.

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