Single Publication

Size: 34,242 acres

Start Date:  July 15, 2023

Point of origin: 2 miles southeast of Agness, OR

Containment: 58%

Total personnel: 468 

Resources: 8 crews l 3 helicopters l 16 engines l 3 bulldozers l 17 water tenders l 4 masticators 

Highlights: Fire spread among unburned fuels in interior islands was low yesterday. Isolated single tree torching may occur but will not impact fire lines or contribute to fire spread. Smoke is not expected to effect firefighting efforts or the communities today. Firefighters are vigilantly assessing containment lines, and putting “eyes-on” remaining heat sources in the interior and near the perimeter. Multiple firefighting resources are improving containment and contingency hand and dozer lines. Assorted heavy equipment resources are making improvements to the southern contingency lines. 

Today’s Activities:  The Flat Fire is a full suppression fire mission. The Incident Management Team (IMT) and the  assigned firefighters are exercising maximum effort to achieve this goal.   Ground and/or aviation resources are performing visual assessments of the fire perimeter.  Helicopters and engines (depending on access and hazardous conditions) continue to seek out and extinguish priority interior heat sources/burning. Improvement of completed southern contingency lines will continue to reinforce the fire defense strategy.  Aircraft surveillance continues and resources will be on alert for any new initial attack requirements and remain available to support other fires as well. 

Weather:  A RED FLAG WARNING FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IS IN EFFECT FROM 5 PM THURSDAY TO 8 AM PDT FRIDAY FOR ABUNDANT LIGHTNING ON DRY FUELS IN THE FLAT FIRE AREA.  The probability of thunderstorms in the area tonight is estimated at 50%. Temperatures will continue to be warmer and drier than average today. A cooling trend and higher relative humidity wil move in Friday and assist firefighting efforts by slowing fire behavior. The cooling trend will continue into the next week. 

Smoke:  Smoke may be visible from the surrounding areas. The Smoke Outlook is available at:  https://outlooks.airfire.org/outlook/b74901f7

Closures:  U.S. Highway 199 has been closed north of Gasquet due to fires on the Six River National Forest, please use U.S. Route 101 to SR 42s for all travel to and from the Rogue Valley. Forest Service and BLM roads should not be used as alternate routes due to emerging fire activity. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest (RRSNF) has issued a closure order for the fire area including trails, roads, and a portion of the Illinois River. Visit https://bit.ly/RRSNFAlerts  for more information.

Evacuations:  Level 1 “Get Ready” evacuation status in place for areas in the vicinity of the Flat Fire. Link to more information:  https://tinyurl.com/currycountyem 

Restrictions: Fire danger is currently extreme; the RRSNF is implementing Level 3 Public Use Restrictions. Level 3 PURs on the Wild Section of the Rogue River have been implemented by the RRSF, Medford BLM and ODF.  More information: https://tinyurl.com/ueuznr6e\