The search continued Friday for an air tanker fighting an Eastern Oregon wildfire that went missing Thursday evening.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., confirmed the information Friday morning.
According to a government Facebook page, a single engine air tanker had been assisting on a lightning start near the Falls Fire burning south of John Day, Ore., in the Malheur National Forest under a Bureau of Land Management contract.
The plane was about 140 miles directly south of Tri-Cities, Wash.
“The dangers of fighting fires are constant and this developing news story from Eastern Oregon is a painful reminder of that fact,” Wyden said on social media. “Let’s all take a moment to think about the people in this air tanker and hope for a positive outcome.”
InciWeb reported that the Falls Fire was believed to be human-caused and had burned at least 140,000 acres as of Wednesday.
Eastern Oregon has had an early and aggressive start to the wildfire season.
As of Thursday, Oregon had reported an estimate of about 900,000 acres burned so far in 2024, which was far above the 10-year average for late July, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System.
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