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A strike team made up of six southwest Oregon fire agencies is in Northern California fighting the explosive Camp fire blaze that had ballooned to more than 100,000 acres just four days after it roared to life east of Chico late last week. The contingent of about 20 firefighters making up Strike Team 7-Rogue Valley includes Jackson County Fire District 3, Jackson County Fire District 5, Medford Fire-Rescue, the Rogue River Fire District, Ashland Fire & Rescue and the Illinois Valley Fire District. Crews joined the blaze Friday and are expected to be on the front lines until at least late next week, joining a total force of 4,555 firefighters, supported by hundreds of engines and tenders, 21 helicopters and 88 bulldozers. “A lot of our engines from the Rogue Valley are doing structural protection, and they’re also doing a lot of pre-positioning, which means that they’re trying to predict which way the wind is going to shift and pre-position the engine in case of a wind event or a wind shift in order to continue that structural defense,” said City of Medford emergency manager Melissa Cano. “There are sometimes where our engines and our firefighters from around here are in active fire areas, and there are times when they’re not.” The team could be asked to extend for up to 21 days. “They’re all doing well,” Cano said. “They’re in as good spirits as they can be, dealing with such a devastating situation.” The first night on the fire, they were assigned to the community of Centerville, located just outside Paradise. Team members worked on preparing structures for protection against the flames. They attacked a fire directly the following night, and their triage work paid off, as more than 20 structures were spared. “Two were lost, but they were deemed non-defensible prior to the fire,” said Mike Calhoun, Fire District 3 battalion chief and Strike Team 7 leader, adding that the two lost houses had landscape that was too overgrown to clear in time. “When you have two hours of work, that just doesn’t pan out.” Late Monday, the team was working a section of Paradise, traveling street to street, searching houses and doing mopups on flames where necessary. “There’s really nothing here. I’d say 87 percent of the town is decimated,” Calhoun said. Strike Team 7 has not found any bodies so far, but they have heard reports over their radios from other teams who have. That and other moments have been sobering. “Every day we’re running into people who work for local departments who’ve lost their homes,” Calhoun said, adding that support staff and chaplains for residents who have lost property are readily available. “There’s a connection. Everybody’s kind of watching out. Some great work is taking place.” The fire ignited Thursday and originally tore through the city of Paradise, forcing a full evacuation as the flames destroyed most of the town. On Monday, the fire had claimed 29 lives, and had destroyed more than 6,000 homes and more than 2,000 commercial structures, according to the Incident Information System website. The fire had grown to 113,000 acres and was considered 25 percent contained Monday. A full containment date is not known. Smoke from the fire, along with smoke from other fires, is expected to begin drifting northward and reach portions of Southern Oregon by Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Reach web editor Ryan Pfeil at [email protected] or at 541-776-4468. Follow him on Twitter@ ryanpfeil .