Crews box in Worthington Fire outside Medford

MEDFORD, Ore. — The Worthington Fire grew slightly to 750 acres and was 70% contained as of Sunday afternoon as crews continued to make headway on the fire about five miles northeast of Eagle Point, according to public information officer Joel Brumm.

The fire had grown to 725 acres Saturday, but has been controlled by 600 personnel, Brumm said, who have worked to make sure the blaze doesn’t jump the fire line.

“We’ve got, obviously, a fire line all the way around, we have hose lay all the way around and (Sunday) they’ve been working on mopping that up,” Brumm said. “They’re just continuing to do mop up on the fire and secure those lines so that if we were tested by a wind or something came up we would be sure we could hold those lines.”

A local Type 3 Incident Management Team continues to manage the fire, and is doing so out of Eagle Point Middle School.

Brumm said he was near the fire Sunday afternoon and heard a large tree fall in the distance. Weakened trees could pose another danger, he said.

“So that’s another thing they’re doing, identifying snags along roads and public access points to make sure that we remove those dangerous snags before we declare the fire totally contained,” he said.