JACKSON COUNTY, Ore.— A new fire in a rural part of Jackson County broke out around 3:45 Tuesday afternoon.
The Neil Rock fire is in Sams Valley near Ramsey Canyon. Oregon Department of Forestry officials say they first noticed smoke from the fire on their detection center cameras.
Once smoke continued to grow, they sent out six engines, one helicopter, one dozer, and the Medco B Fire Task Force.
We’re still a little over a month away from fire season but ODF officials say it’s not unusual to see fires this time of year.
“We’ve had a lot of warm weather recently, a lot of temperatures in the 80’s, a lot of wind and its not a great combination,” Oregon Department of Forestry PIO, Natalie Weber, said. “What we do have going for us right now is that all of our fuels that we have in the heat of summer are still green, so a fire is not going to spread as quickly on green grass as it is dry grass.”
ODF says it took crews a couple of hours to get to the fire because the area that it’s burning in is in steep and rocky terrain. There also aren’t many access roads to get to the fire.
As of Tuesday evening, the fire was last reported to be between 8 to 10 acres.
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