Central Oregon MORNING Fire Update, 7/9 11:00 a.m.

Central Oregon MORNING Fire Update 

PRINEVILLE, Ore. – Incident #368 near the junction of Highway 97 and 197, has been named Ten Mile Canyon Fire and has grown to approximately 7,000 acres after being reported yesterday afternoon. Four 20-person hand crews, several engines and three helicopters are engaging the fire this morning. The fire has no containment at this time.

Afternoon thunderstorms are anticipated over the fire area which has the potential to bring both rain and gusty winds The Ten Mile Canyon Fire is burning on private land and is likely to move toward the nearby BLM land, so mandatory evacuations are still in place for the South Junction and Wingdam campgrounds. The only road closure in place at this time remains the South Junction Road, which was closed last night. This fire has been determined to be human caused and is under investigation.

The Corner Creek Fire remained at 28,766 acres as of 9:00 a.m. this morning.  Wet and cooler weather allowed crews to continue strengthening the fire lines along the perimeter, but work was cut short on portions of the fire line due to lightning in the area in the afternoon.  Thunderstorms yesterday dropped rain from less than 0.10 inch to 0.25 inch across the fire.  The Corner Creek Fire stayed within established containment lines.  Continued helicopter water drops successfully checked the spread of the fire along unlined fire edge.

As a reminder, several closures are still in place for the Corner Creek Fire including an Ochoco National Forest area closure and the South Fork Road/Co. Rd. 42 which is closed to the general public from near Dayville to south of the US Forest Service 58 Road junction due to fire activity. To read the entire closure order and view a map of the area closure, please visit the Ochoco National Forest website at http://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/ochoco/alerts-notices  

Information about the Sugarloaf and Corner Creek Fires, managed by the Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team 2 of Forestry Team 2, can be found at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/