FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 26, 2023
Contact: Ken Smith, Public Relations Director,
541-783-2219 ext. 147
kenneth.smith@klamathtribes.com
Tim Sexton, Klamath Tribes Fire Program Manager,
541-783-2019, ext. 154
tim.sexton@klamathtribes.com
Dillon Creek Fire Continues to Burn Within Planned Final Perimeter
CHILOQUIN, Ore. – The Dillon Creek Fire continues to burn within the planned final perimeter. Firefighters have made progress in securing the southwest fire perimeter through firing operations as well as chainsaw and handtool work. Several small spot fires occurred on Wednesday when strong gusty winds blew embers across Forest Road 7645. The spot fires were quickly contained by dozers, engines and hotshot crews.
Operations Chief David Lilly stated that plans for Friday and Saturday “are to continue securing the planned fire perimeter through additional firing operations and handcrew work”. He added that, “we believe we can finish securing the firelines and get full containment of the fire by early next week”. Evan Wright, the incident commander advised “there are traffic delays of up to 15 minutes on the Silver Lake Highway when smoke or firefighting activities make vehicle travel hazardous”. He noted that “we have traffic control and a pilot car to safely convoy travelers through the fire area”.
Firing operations are being conducted by hotshot crews with drip torches along the road system and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones in the interior areas. The drones are outfitted with small machines that inject ping pong balls with chemicals and then drop them into the area to be burned. The chemicals in the ping pong balls cause them to burst into flames after a short time delay. The small spot fires created by the ping pong balls grow together at relatively low intensity to burn out areas in a controlled manner.