A hero's send-off as local fire crews head to the fire lines

Fire District 3 crew members left Central Point to help with the South Obenchain fire, but not before they got a hero's send-off.

Lines are holding in some areas, what are crews dealing with as they try to contain the spread of this fire?

Well on the south and west edges of the fire, crews have even entered the mop-up stages.

But with winds pushing the fire east, a few factors are making containment very difficult.

Rough terrain and thick smoke are challenging fire fighters as they look to encircle the south obenchain fire as it moves east.

Sonny caldwell says, "the eastern side of the fire, that's the part of the fire that's giving us a little bit of trouble.

For the last several days we've been fighting that battle, putting a lot of resources to it, we're starting to get around it with a line but we're not super confident in where we're at with it right now."

Fire crews are working as quickly as they can in rough terrain which is limiting the access of heavy equipment.

Most of the fire lines being made on the eastern edge of the fire are with hand crews.

Bulldozers can only access select areas of the mountainous lands.

To make things even more difficult, heavy smoke shrouds the valley in a think blanket of smoke, leaving air tankers grounded for the time being.

Without air support to help lay retardant down to supplement fire lines, crews are left to hand lines.

Caldwell says, "it's just tough terrain over there and we've got a lot of heavy fuel and it's burning through a fire scar right now, which is a difficult thing to manage as well.

It's a combination of factors but air quality as far as getting aircraft up is a contributing one for sure."

Local fire crews are also on stand by to help protect structures in butte falls.

As they head off to help fight fires, some have their own send off committee.

"bye dad, i love you, hope you return safely and i hope you're safe out there fighting the fires."

Daughters and a son of a firefighter, with pictures for the brave men of fire district three headed into danger this evening.

"i painted this because after the fire it's probably going to look like this."

And also, clear instructions on how to handle the flames threatening southern oregon.

"kick the fire's butt."

Definitely a sentiment we can all agree on here in southern