Miller Complex Fire Update Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team - Todd Pechota, Incident Commander Information Center: 541-899-5302 Hours of operation: 7 am – 9 pm Email:
[email protected] September 2, 2017 Current Situation: Heat will begin to build again Saturday afternoon and through the weekend. It will be extremely hot and dry with the potential of smoke column development in the afternoons. Winds will decrease with some north wind variability. Aircraft was used in Branch III on Friday as the inversion lifted and may be used again Saturday pending smoke conditions. Evacuations: The following areas are under a Level 2 (Be Set) Evacuation Notice: • Palmer Creek Road and Kinney Creek Road (Forest Service Road 1090) • Both sides of Upper Applegate Road from Palmer Creek Road to the Applegate Dam Spillway (This includes Bolder City) • Beaver Creek Road (Jackson County, Oregon) from its junction with Upper Applegate Road east for approximately a mile. The following areas are in a Level 1 (Be Ready) Evacuation Notice: • Carberry Creek Road from Applegate Road up to and including Steamboat Ranch • Palmer Creek Road/Applegate Road intersection north to 7449 Applegate Road and Eastside Road from Upper Applegate Road north to 2874 Eastside Road. • South from Applegate Dam Spillway around all of Applegate Lake (1/8 mile buffer around water to include all private property), including French Gulch. • The following Recreation Sites: o Hart-tish, Harr Pt, Watkins, Tipsu Tyee, Latgawa Cove and Stringtown campgrounds o Carberry Picnic Ground The evacuation order for Joe Bar has been relaxed to an evacuation warning. Branch I: Creedence Fire and Bigelow (Grayback) Fire (seven miles south of Williams) Crews continued to work on installing hose lays and sprinklers to secure the fire’s northwest side. Crews will continue to hold, mop-up, monitor, and patrol firelines. Branch II: Burnt Peak Fire (Nine miles southwest of Ruch and 3 miles north of Applegate Lake). The fire is backing down Billy Mountain and there are control lines in place along the 1095 and 1090 roads. Structural protection continues north of Applegate Lake; additional hand crews were placed on the east side to keep up with the fire’s progression down the north and south flanks. Crews will continue to mop-up along control lines where the fire has already burned. Branch III: Abney Fire (About nine miles north of Seiad Valley, CA) The fire is established across the Pacific Crest Trail west of Copper Butte. Firefighters are working on containing the fire with assistance from the Klamath National Forest in Calfornia. Masticators were brought in to clear vegetation along the 1050 road. Dozers, along with retardant drops, reinforced roads as firelines on the fire’s northwest side. Spot fires in the area across from Whiskey Creek are being controlled with retardant and additional hand crews. Structure protection is ongoing in the Joe Bar area. Closures: The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has closed three areas on the Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District in each of the branches, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/rogue-siskiyou/alerts-notices. The Bureau of Land Management has closed the Grayback Mountain Trailhead. Fire Statistics: Start Date: August 14, 2017 Cause: Lightning Complex Sized: 16,012 acres Total Personnel: 555 Complex Containment: 40% Website: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5514/# Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillerComplexFires/ or https://facebook/R6RRSNF Twitter: #MillerComplex See where you are in relation to the fires: http://tinyurl.com/MillerComplexEvacs