September 9, 2020 11:55 a.m.

The Star Mountain Fire and the Archie Creek Fire have merged together as expected and burned 72,000 acres in their first twelve hours.

An update from the Douglas Forest Protective Association said the incident will now be known as the Archie Creek Fire. Wednesday morning, representatives from DFPA, The Umpqua National Forest and the Roseburg Bureau of Land Management met with the incoming incident management team to give them a briefing on the fire. Northwest Incident Management Team 9 will assume command of the fire on Wednesday night.

The update said Tuesday’s fire activity was explosive “to say the least”. Officials plan to get a flight over the fire in the near future to get a more precise size for the fire. Information about specific homes is not yet available but officials have been told by the structural protection resources that structures have been lost on this fire.

One of the structures lost was DFPA’s Rock Creek Guard Station.

A Facebook page, an InciWeb page and an information phone line dedicated to the fire are being created.