Update for Sept. 12, 2020 – Corrected
Northwest Incident Management Team 9 (Incident Commander Brian Goff)
Email: 2020.archiecreek@firenet.gov
Phone: 971-334-7674 Hours: 7am-8pm
InciWeb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7176/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Archie-Creek-Fire-Information-120244459815292/
Fire information: The Archie Creek Fire burning east of Roseburg is now 115,857 acres and is at 0% containment. It is burning in the North Umpqua drainage on the west slope of the Cascades. There are 369 people assigned to the fire.
Current Situation: Fire fighter and public safety is the number one priority. Access to fire areas are limited due to smoke inversion and blocked roads. Large tracts of private and federal timber lands continue to be threatened. Electrical transmission lines are damaged or are threatened. Recreation areas and resorts are closed due to the fire.
Progress is being made with structure assessments, protection of structures, use of roads, power infrastructure, containment of fire, and opportunities for future containment. Additional resources are coming to help. It takes time with resources spread thin and changing weather to have confidence to claim containment.
Yesterday, firefighters worked on the fire with local fire departments, industrial landowners and loggers to construct fire lines and provide structure protection. Oregon Department of Transportation (DOT) and fire crews worked to clear fallen trees and large rocks from Hwy 138 East and Rock Creek Road.
Indirect fire line construction will continue today. Direct dozer line construction will continue on the western and southern flanks of the fire where practical and where topography will allow.
Northwest IMT 9 (I.C. Goff) is managing the fire in coordination with the Umpqua National Forest, the Roseburg Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Douglas Forest Protective Association (DFPA), the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Search and Rescue, local fire departments and local logging companies.
Weather: Warm and dry conditions, along with breezy afternoon winds, will persist through the weekend. Smoke may limit daytime highs. Humidity should improve over the next few days, especially overnight recoveries, but daytime humidity will remain quite low at higher elevations.
Current Evacuations:
LEVEL 1 “BE READY” – All Douglas County residents should be ready to leave at all times.
LEVEL 2 “BE SET” –
- Nonpareil Road from Plat K Road west to Gassy Creek
- The community of Glide from the Green Bridge east to Little River Road. (Except for Lone Rock Road, Bar L Ranch Road, Upper Terrace, Terrace, Little River Road)
LEVEL 3 “GO!” –
- Dry Creek (Happy Creek Ln, Felix Flat, Elk Ridge, Illahee) Steamboat Creek to the Green Bridge in Glide (Includes all addresses between these points, Includes the community of Idleyld Park)
- Lone Rock Road
- Bar L Ranch Road
- Upper Terrace Drive
- Terrace Drive
- Little River Road
- Gassy Creek Road east to the end of Nonpariel Road
Shelter: Douglas County has an evacuation location for displaced wildfire residents, pets and livestock at the Fairgrounds. For information about space availability, contact the Fairground Office at 541-440-4394. For information on shelter for horses and large animals, contact the Douglas County Parks Department at 541-440-6040. For small animals (cats, dogs, birds, etc.), contact Saving Grace at 541-672-3907. For other small animals like pigs, sheep or goats, contact the Douglas County Fairgrounds.
The American Red Cross, working in conjunction with the Salvation Army, has set up an Emergency Shelter in Douglas Hall at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. For more information, please contact the Salvation Army at (541) 672-6581 and the American Red Cross at (541) 344-5244.
Safety of evacuated areas: Douglas County deputies and troopers from the Oregon State Police are patrolling residential areas in an effort to deter and detect criminal activities during the evacuation period. Residents who have video surveillance or cameras, should call and report any suspicious activity they observe.
The Sheriff’s Office has created a page on its website which contains maps of the current evacuation zones. The maps attempt to provide a visual of the most current evacuation zones by showing roads and specific addresses in some cases. The maps can be found at www.dcso.com/evacuations and are updated as quickly as possible.
Air quality: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued an Air Pollution Advisory for today. For more information, visit http://www.oregon.gov/deq.
Closures: Highway 138 East remains closed to non-fire traffic between Milepost 17 and 47. Motorists are advised to use alternative routes and to monitor www.tripcheck.com for updates on the highway closure.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – lands east of Interstate 5, within the Swiftwater Resource Area are closed.
Umpqua National Forest – the entire Umpqua National Forest is closed until the extreme fire danger is over, except for emergency personnel and persons that have a permit specifically authorizing their presence in the closure areas. These closures are to protect the public from the hazardous conditions on the ground and to decrease the chance of additional human caused fires. Also, chainsaw use on the Forest is prohibited.
Forest Service roads affected by the fire are being cleared by agency and fire personnel. State, county and other local jurisdiction roads remain under the direction of the specific agency.
Maps and closure orders can be found on Inciweb at: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/closures/7176/. Additional information on the Forest Forest Service closures are available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/umpqua/alerts-notices.