7/22/2018 Interagency Information Center is Operational

An interagency fire information center is now operational at the Josephine County Emergency Operations Center. This center will provide “one-stop shopping” to the public regarding fire information needs in southwest Oregon.  The Info Center number is 541-474-5305 and operating hours are 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

“We are pleased to be of service to the local public to provide important information on wildland fire status, closures and evacuations,” said Center Manager Don Ferguson.

Although agencies have been coordinating closely since day one of initial attack on the lightning-caused fires, the effort will be heightened as a coordinating group provides facilitation and support.

“Our primary mission with the multi-agency agency coordinating group is to identify priorities, and to help make the best use of assigned aircraft and firefighters in order to put these fires out as quickly and efficiently as possible”, said Deschutes County Forester Joe Stutler.

Pacific Northwest Team 3 (Livingston), a Type I Incident Management Team in briefing was at 6:00 p.m. tonight. The team will transition with the current Type 2 Incident Management Team (Lawson) tomorrow and take over management of the Natchez Fire at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, July 16.

All three team managed incidents (Hendrix Fire, Natchez Fire and Sugar Pine Fire) have pages on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest web page at https://www.fs.usda.gov/rogue-siskiyou, in addition to incident-specific event pages on the RRSNF Facebook site, and on Inciweb at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov

With the high level of fire activity and more predicted lightning, please stay current on RRSNF fire restrictions by visiting https://bit.ly/2O2Vi2K. Additional fire restriction information can be found by visiting other agency websites, such as the Oregon Department of Forestry www.swofire.com

As smoke becomes more prevalent in the valley, Jackson County Health & Human Services offers a variety of sources of information:

For more information on using the visibility index during wildfires http://www.oregon.gov/deq/aq/Pages/Wildfires-Visibility.aspx