Jackson County launches fire damage website

Sep. 26--Jackson County has rolled out a website that shows the extent of damage to thousands of individual properties impacted by the fires in Southern Oregon.

The Jackson County Fire Damage Assessment dashboard, available at jacksoncounty.org/damagedashboardoffers an interactive map, damage status and street-view photographs of more than of more than 3,500 properties in the Almeda and South Obenchain fires.

The database draws from visual surveys conducted by teams working with the county and the cities of Medford, Phoenix and Talent, and provides overall statistics for the region, along with photographs of every impacted address, according to Jackson County Technology Director Mark Decker. The teams worked for the past week to compile photographs of every property accessible, and IT teams worked with the county assessor's office to make the data accessible using Geographic Information System software from map vendor Esri.

"We've got a lot of people working around the clock," Decker said.

The website is designed to help relief providers such as FEMA and potential out-of-area insurance companies the ability to process claims without needing to visit hazardous burn sites, according to Decker. It classifies the extent of damage on a five-level scale from "Unaffected" to "Destroyed," and is searchable by address or by map.

"A lot of these sites are dangerous," Decker said.

As of Saturday afternoon, local officials had assessed 3,598 properties, of which 2,659 are destroyed, 22 have major damage, 69 have minor damage, some are "affected" or 795 unaffected. The database also breaks down the damage data by property type. For instance, of the 2,659 destroyed properties, there are 2,488 residential structures, 164 commercial buildings and four public buildings destroyed.

"There should be a photo attached to every single one of those properties," Decker said.

Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MTCrimeBeat.

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