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Salt Creek wildfire takes off east of the Rogue Valley on Sunday

The Salt Creek Fire burning on Sunday afternoon.
ODF Southwest District
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The Salt Creek Fire burning on Sunday afternoon.

Firefighters are making “good progress” on a 1,500-acre wildfire that began growing quickly in the Rogue Valley Sunday afternoon in forest lands outside of Eagle Point, about 20 miles northeast of Medford, Oregon, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.

UPDATED: Sunday, July 7, 11:59 p.m. ... The Salt Creek Fire was estimated 1,500 acres with a large smoke plume as of 9:20 p.m. Sunday evening, according to the .

The blaze started with an estimated size of 7-10 acres around 5 p.m., and grew into 800-1,000 acres in two hours.

ODFSD said firefighters were engaged in an aggressive initial attack using air tankers and helicopters. Around 9 p.m., it reported that air tankers were able to create “good temporary containment lines with retardant.”

In its final update close to 11 p.m., ODFSD said firefighters are making “good progress” on the fire, taking advantage of the cooler conditions in the evening and using bulldozers and hand tools to keep the blaze as small as possible.

“Resources continue to pour in from across Oregon and are being placed strategically across the fire,” it wrote in its Facebook page.

Jackson County issued a level 1 “Be Ready” evacuation warning for several zones around the fire on Sunday but no evacuation orders had been issued as of the end of Sunday.

“There are no structures threatened at this time. Deputies are on scene to provide door-to-door notifications to houses in the areas,” the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office .

The fire began burning during temperatures in excess of 100 F with a red flag warning and excessive heat warning in effect. Triple digit temperatures are forecast to continue through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, Medford office.

The Salt Creek Fire was burning north of Highway 140, which connects the Rogue Valley to Klamath Falls, and which passes popular nearby weekend destinations including the Lake of the Woods Resort.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Erik Neumann is JPR's news director. He earned a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and joined JPR as a reporter in 2019 after working at NPR member station KUER in Salt Lake City.