<p>Fire retardant is dropped on the Big Sheep 2 Fire on Monday, Aug. 19.</p>

The U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) are combining efforts to keep two lightning-caused fires ignited Sunday, Aug. 18, from becoming large, project fires.

On Tuesday morning the 129-acre Big Sheep 2 Fire six miles south of Imnaha was about 80 percent contained, said Jodi Kramer, public affairs officer for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

By late Monday afternoon, personnel from the two agencies had placed a fire line around and contained another fire, the 21-acre B&H Fire about 20 miles northeast of Enterprise at Romaine Gulch, near Chesnimnus Creek.

On both fires, aerial support in the form of helicopters and retardant-dropping airplanes were called in to keep the fires from getting out of control in dry timber and grassy terrain.

Kramer said 180 firefighters were attacking Big Sheep 2 on Tuesday, with an emphasis placed on containing the northeast corner of the fire. She said the blaze slopped over the ridge into the Imnaha River drainage area but was kept from spreading further by aerial support.

ODF spokesman Matt Howard, that agencys wildland fire supervisor based in Wallowa, said having road access to the B&H Fire helped that firefighting effort. In addition to USFS, ODF, and aerial support, a 10-man firefighting crew from the Snake River Corrections Facility is manning the fire as well.

Howard said about 30 persons were kept on that fire for mop-up purposes.

According to Kramer, the first report of the Big Sheep 2 fire came from a USFS helicopter based at Sled Springs that was flying to Idaho to help fight a fire there.

Howard stressed the importance of catching fires at an early stage and keeping them from spreading. We are in the heart of fire season, he said.