Updated at 9:20 p.m. Thursday.
Barring additional developments, this will be the final update on this fire.
Firefighters gained the upper hand on a fast-moving wildfire southeast of Veneta Thursday afternoon, allowing the Lane County Sheriff to reduce evacuation levels in the area.
The fire was first reported around 3 p.m. and quickly spread. Around 4 p.m., the Lane County Sheriff urgently warned people in the community just south of the Perkins Peninsula to evacuate. According to the Oregon Office of Emergency Management's wildfire dashboard, approximately 182 people live in the evacuation zone.
Shortly before 5 p.m., the Oregon Department of Forestry — Western Lane District announced on Facebook that the fire's forward progress had been stopped.
Around 6:30 p.m., the Sheriff's office announced that evacuation levels were being reduced from Level 3 (GO NOW) to Level 1 (BE READY), meaning people in the neighborhood could return home.
The evacuations applied to "all residences on Halderson Road, west to Central Road between Perkins Road and Cantrell Road," according to the sheriff.
The ODF said the fire was about 15 acres and burned mostly in grass, with some timber as well.
"Perimeter control lines have been secured but not all flames or hot spots have been addressed in the fire's interior," the agency said in a Facebook update just after 9 p.m. Thursday. "You may see flames within the fire footprint tonight but we will have engines on scene all night to assure the fire doesn’t spread."