Forest Service stands firm in dispute on fire retardant

Photos of red or orange retardant being dropped from airplanes make good, but misleading, public relation images, said Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in Eugene, Ore.

"We used to call them photodrops," said Ingalsbee, a wildland fire ecologist and former firefighter with the Forest Service and the National Park Service.

Ingalsbee said "bureaucratic inertia" keeps the federal government from a deeper examination of fire retardant, for which the Forest Service contracts for helicopters and airplanes, a lucrative arrangement for companies.