About 16 Linn County firefighters comprise a task force dispatched to assist crews battling the 5,000-plus-acre Middle Fork Complex fires burning 9 miles north of Oakridge in Lane County.
Some 619 personnel are assigned to the 12-blaze incident, under the management of Pacific Northwest Team 3 Unified Command Incident Commander Randy Johnson and Incident Commander Ian Yocum, of the Oregon State Fire Marshal Red Team.
The on-scene crews include three members and a Type 3 engine apiece from the Lebanon and Tangent departments; two firefighters, two communication specialists and a Type 6 brush engine from Sweet Home; and three firefighters and a water tender from Harrisburg. Albany Fire Department fire marshal Lora Ratcliff said Monday afternoon that the Albany department sent deputy chief Kyle Romey, public information officer Sandy Roberts and lieutenant Levi Lindsey, as well as “one of our Suburbans with a trailer.”
The largest of the fires are the 5,020-acre Gales, 786-acre Kwis and the 359-acre Ninemile. The overall conflagration is currently 2% contained, according to information provided by Inciweb at press time. The incident was first detected at around 2 p.m. Thursday, July 29.
Level 1 (be ready) and 3 (go now) evacuations are now in place, with all homes, campgrounds and dispersed recreation along Forest Service Road 18 (Big Fall Creek Road) east of the intersection with Forest Service Road 1821, including the Puma and Bedrock campgrounds, evacuated.
“The Oregon Department of Forestry has announced that current fire danger levels are extreme,” a Lebanon Fire District said in a press release issued Tuesday. ODF restrictions can be found at https://gisapps.odf.oregon.gov/firerestrictions/PFR.html.
