Local News

The Oregon Department of Forestry responded to 15 reports of fire on Tuesday following thunderstorms throughout the Southwest Region on Monday night. In total, ODF firefighters found and confirmed 10 fires from the 15 reported.

ODF resources worked with federal partners at the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Medford BLM District in response to these fires and -- as a result -- all the fires are completely extinguished or fully-lined and holding in their current footprints.

Numerous resources were used early Tuesday morning to gather information on these incidents including drone flights, reconnaissance flights with various aircraft and ODF's Detection Center cameras. ODF has a goal of extinguishing all fires as quickly and as small as possible.

As a direct result of this work, the largest fire was caught at 12 acres. The East Trail Creek Fire near the 6,000-block of Highway 227 north of Trail forced Level 2 and Level 1 evacuation notices, but they were lifted by Tuesday afternoon.

The other incidents were identified as the Alder Creek, Hibbard Point and Halls Point fires near Prospect; the Star Gulch Fire southeast of Williams; the Beaver Dam and Daily Creek fires south of Fish Lake; and the Summit Prairie, Mule Creek and Laurelhurst fires southeast of Lost Creek Lake.

Firefighters responded to an additional five reports of fire, but didn't find anything while searching in those areas. The ODF Detection Center will continue to monitor cameras in these areas and report any smoke found. A reconnaissance flight is planned for this morning to seek out potential new lightning strike areas.