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Though his agency isn’t heading up the investigation, Curry County Sheriff John Ward told commissioners on Wednesday that somebody — “maybe two or three people” — will be held accountable for the Flat Fire burning near Agness.

Deputies and Search & Rescue volunteers started urging residents on Old House Creek and Spud roads to evacuate shortly after the fire began at about 6 p.m. Saturday. Ward estimated that roughly 40 to 70 people were notified to evacuate.

“Agness residents are pretty resilient,” he told commissioners. “Unless we take them out by handcuffs, they’re not going to leave. We’re not forcing anybody out, we just tell them we may not be able to come back and help you.”

As of Thursday, residents from Agness to Quosatana Creek are at a Level 2 evacuation notice, which urges them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, Ward posted on Facebook. Those notices are issued primarily through the county’s Everbridge system, though deputies and SAR personnel will go door-to-door to actually urge people to evacuate.

Ward joined Brookings City Fire Chief Jim Watson, Coos Forest Protective Association Manager Mike Robinson and Dan Quinones, fire staff officer for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest for a “pre-season” meeting.

The meeting turned into an in-depth look at how local and federal personnel were battling the Flat Fire, which had blown up to more than 12,700 acres by the time commissioners met Wednesday morning.

The fire was reported to be 20 by 40 feet when it was first reported on Saturday and grew to 100 acres in a matter of hours, Quinones said.

The fire is currently mapped at 15,217 acres as of Friday afternoon. Visibility issues kept an infrared plane from mapping the fire’s latest size on Thursday evening.

Robinson said because of the limited amount of rain the Southern Oregon Coast received last spring, the Flat Fire may be the beginning of a long fire season.

“What we’re seeing now is sort of an oven effect,” he said. “Low elevation is very very dry and wind-driven and hot, so that’s dried all the fuels. This fire that’s currently in progress has reacted to those conditions that we currently have and it’s challenging us, obviously.”

As of Friday morning, a total of 936 personnel were battling the fire. Resources include 11 agencies, 32 crews, four bulldozers, four water tenders, eight masticators and eight helicopters. Crews are using small burnout operations to keep the fire from spreading to Agness and Gold Beach, according to Friday morning’s briefing. They’re also focusing on protecting nearby structures.

“We spared no expense financially and figuratively on attacking this fire to make sure it was wiped off the landscape,” Quinones said.

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest encompasses 1.8 million acres across five ranger districts, including in Gold Beach and Powers in Coos County. Forest service assets include a fire engine in Powers and in Gold Beach and one 10-person hand crew.

However, the National Forest “pre-positioned” other resources ahead of the Flat Fire to make sure the forest service could respond.

Quinones credited the Coos Forest Protective Association, rural fire departments and local municipalities for a “great coordinated response” to the Flat Fire.

“We’ve had a really good success rate on our forest for the last several years in terms of initial attack,” Quinones told commissioners. “This one here wasn’t for lack of trying, it was just the right conditions — or the wrong conditions however you want to look at it — that really allowed this one to get a hold of us.”

In addition to the Flat Fire, Quinones said the National Forest is also responding to other fire starts, including some arson, on its eastern boundary, but they don’t want to lose focus on the Flat Fire.

Robinson predicted a 140-day fire season this year. The Coos Forest Protective Association reassessed the wildfire risk to high recently, which restricts whether people can have a campfire as well as regulates what they can do around their homes, Robinson said.

What’s helpful for the fight against the Flat Fire is resources aren’t yet strained, Robinson said. Thunderstorms in eastern Oregon toward Idaho in June has reduced the risk of fire there, he said.

The only other fire in the state is the Haight Creek Fire burning in steep terrain southwest of Eugene, according to Robinson.

The Haight Creek Fire is roughly 107 acres and has been 10 percent contained as of 9 a.m. Friday, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Meanwhile in Curry County, a community meeting focusing on the Flat Fire has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at in the Gold Beach High School cafeteria, 29516 Ellensburg Avenue. The meeting will also be streamed live on Flat Fire - Southern Oregon 2023’s Facebook page.

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