What is the Joint Information Center (JIC)?

So what is the JIC?

The Joint Information Center (JIC) is an office that pops up in an area where there are multiple fires being managed by multiple agencies. The purpose of the JIC is to provide a “one-stop-shopping” point to gather information about all of the fires in the area.

The JIC, operating at Josephine County Emergency Operations Center and referred to on our daily updates, opened on July 21 and answers calls for 33 fires in our area and handles about 1000 call per day at its peak. Answering phones are 7-10 volunteers and fire professionals including volunteers from Josephine County Search & Rescue, Community Emergency Response Teams of Medford and Illinois Valley Rural Metro Fire - Josephine County. One of the most popular questions is “what is my evacuation level?” The Southwest Oregon JIC has had more than 30,000 views at swojic.blogspot.com.

Partners in the Southwest Oregon JIC include BLM Oregon & Washington, ODF Southwest Oregon District, U.S. Forest Service- Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, U.S. Forest Service - Umpqua National Forest. The JIC can be reach at 541.474.5305 will remain open as long as necessary to support local fires, and you might see a JIC in the future in our fire-prone southern Oregon.