Thirteen injuries have been reported on the Flat Fire burning east of Gold Beach, but none of the injuries are serious, with most being exposure to poison oak. 

“We have eight cases of poison oak exposure, three heat-related illnesses and two allergic reactions,” said Natalie Weber, public information officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry – Southwest District. 

All of those injured were treated at Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach.

“We are in the process of getting a specialist on the fire line, and they’ll be able to treat poison oak cases as they happen,” Weber said. “Poison oak is something we see on fires quite frequently.”

The fire grew by four square miles in the previous 24 hours, and 104 more firefighters arrived to fight the blaze, according to a Saturday morning update on the blaze.

The fire was reported at 18,463 acres, or almost 29 square miles, up from 15,217 acres, or nearly 24 square miles Friday. As of Saturday, 1,040 personnel were assigned to fight the fire.

Overnight, most fire activity was within fire lines, as crews were able to hold the fire within their control lines, according to fire officials. Pacific Northwest Team 3 arrived Friday night and will take over management of the Flat Fire from Northwest Team 6 at 6 a.m. Sunday.

Fourteen more fire engines have been called in, up from 11 engines Friday.

Firefighters are working to extinguish hot spots where they’ve completed burnout operations in the north and northwest areas of the fire to keep the Flat Fire within their control lines, according to Northwest Incident Management Team 6.

“This has been a key part all week of what we call our anchor point, and the primary emphasis there is being to provide a lot of good security to the lower Illinois River Valley and the Agness community area,” said Brian Bishop, operations section chief, via a video update Saturday morning. “We’ve got the majority of that line secured in terms of, we have fire black all the way up to the line edge and we’re beginning mop up and securing and locking that down into the river.”

“We’ve been working in there diligently to secure that road by using some fire along the road to get what we call ‘good black’ along the road,” Bishop said of efforts on the north side of the fire. “We’re going to continue to go in there today and work on mopping that up and securing that.” 

Toward the south, crews are working with South Coast Lumber and using heavy equipment on Forest Road 3318, or Wild Horse Road, to clear vegetation and create a fuel break to slow fire spread. 

“A lot of the southern part of the fire honestly is not built for firefighters to be in. It’s very, very difficult country,” Bishop said. “Nonetheless, we’re continuing to look out there, scout that out and get a good handle on where we can find some opportunities to slow or stop any of the southern progression of the fire into the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.”

Crews “started doing what we call preparation along the roads, and getting the roads set up so that we can come in and ideally hold fire on those roads as the fire progresses,” Bishop added. 

Timber fallers in the northeast are falling standing dead trees so crews can start burnout operations, if possible.

Structure protection groups have started setting up sprinkler kits around buildings in Agness.

“We still have a structure group stood up in here that is working on making sure we have good solid protection in here for all the structures up there,” Bishop said of protecting Agness. 

Surface smoke is expected to spread south and southeast Saturday afternoon toward Brookings and Cave Junction. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality advisory, saying air quality in Cave Junction could reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Air quality is expected to reach unhealthy levels at times in southern Curry and Josephine counties and Jackson County, but can fluctuate depending on the weather, according to the National Weather Service.

Air quality in the Medford-Ashland area is expected to be good into Sunday afternoon, but it’s expected to worsen Sunday night as the winds shift northwesterly, bringing the smoke from the Flat Fire into the area, resulting in moderate to poor air quality.

The U.S. Forest Service is scheduled to host a Flat Fire community meeting at 3 p.m. Saturday at Gold Beach High School. The meeting will be available for online viewing at the U.S. Forest Service Flat Fire Facebook page.

The fire started about 6 p.m. Saturday, July 15, and spread to a few thousand acres overnight in the area of the Oak Flat Campground along the Illinois River, about two miles southeast of Agness. The fire was human caused, according to Curry County Sheriff John Ward, but is listed by federal fire officials as undetermined and under investigation.

In addition to the 104-person increase in personnel and 14 more fire engines called to the Flat Fire Saturday, two more helicopters, three extra bulldozers and seven more water tenders have been called to the scene.

Saturday’s personnel included 1,040 firefighters, 32 crews, 10 helicopters, 25 engines, seven bulldozers, 11 water tenders and eight masticators.