EAGLE POINT, Ore. – Smoke erupted into the sky Sunday afternoon and has blanketed much of the valley Monday, as the Salt Creek fire continues to burn 10 miles east of Eagle Point.
Crews were quick to respond as the fire along Salt Creek Road off Highway 140 grew almost exponentially.
“The fire is burning in an area that’s steep there’s valleys there’s hills to it. It can be challenging ground to get firefighters on,” Natalie Weber with ODF tells NBC5 News.
Initial estimates had the fire at three to five acres, but quickly grew to an estimated 1,500 acres in red flag conditions.
After an intense initial attack, including air support performing retardant drops, rough lines are being established around the incident.
Firefighters built on that overnight and got it about 40% lined, today they’re working to just solidify those lines and create new ones where they can and push forward, but ultimately, we’re expecting that fire activity to pick up and so we want to be prepared for that as well.
ODF’S Incident Management Team 1 has been brought in to take over the response.
As for the cause of the fire, Weber said, “we didn’t have any lighting so that makes it human caused by nature. Investigators will be looking into that exact cause.”
Salt Creek Road and Wasson Canyon Road remain closed at Highway 140 and ODF reminds the public to stay away.
“Driving is one of most dangerous things that we actually do and when we have more vehicles on the road it just creates more hazards for the public and our firefighters,” Weber added.
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