Minnesota wildfires: More than 20,000 acres of land, dozens of homes burned
A tree on fire along Hiironen Road Monday, May 12, 2025 near Brimson, Minn.
Derek Montgomery for MPR News
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Audio transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] NINA MOINI: It's our top story today. Wildfires in Northeast Minnesota have exploded in size. We're tracking two large wildfires. The biggest is the camp house fire, which is at least at 12,000 acres. It's about the size of the entire city of Winona. About 13 miles north is the Jenkins creek Fire. That's at about 6,800 acres. That's about the size of the city of Golden Valley, for some perspective for you all there. Both at 0% contained.
The wildfires have led to the loss of dozens of homes and cabins and also led to evacuation orders. This morning, St. Louis County Sheriff, Gordon Ramsay, said some people who did not evacuate are unaccounted for.
GORDON RAMSEY: Their houses have been lost, so we need to determine where they are. We are hoping that they evacuated, but this is a new phase of this incident, where we are working on determining the location of people, where they're at and if they're safe.
NINA MOINI: Joining us now is Leanne Langeberg, who works with the Minnesota Interagency Fire center. Thank you for your time this afternoon, Leanne.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: Thank you for having me on. It's a pleasure to be with you today.
NINA MOINI: What we just heard from Sheriff Ramsay there is concerning. From your standpoint, what do you know about how people work together, different agencies, like yours, and perhaps the sheriff's office to try to locate some of the people who are unaccounted for?
LEANNE LANGEBERG: So it takes quite a coordination of efforts among a lot of different partners throughout Minnesota. On the side that I work on in, I'm more focused in on getting the wildfires and the equipment to be able to respond to the suppression efforts.
And even just from that standpoint, you think mobilizing a firefighter to where the response is happening, making sure that they're well equipped and understand the conditions that we're facing and how to fight fire effectively under a full suppression strategy.
Takes quite a bit of planning well in advance of days like this. It takes coordination with partners like our National Weather Service, who are monitoring the weather and conditions, folks that are looking at the fuels, and then just in general, all of our partners that have firefighters that are trained and ready to respond.
And then you take into consideration the coordination that happens at our local county levels through emergency management. They're also doing a lot of preparation and preparedness for these types of events. And while we hope that we don't face these situations, it's that continuous preparation and training and forward thinking that can help us do the best that we can to protect the Minnesota public and really even the broader public in that sense.
NINA MOINI: You're planning obviously all the time in year round, but the things that cannot be accounted for, like the weather conditions, the dryness, the heat, the wind. And I understand these wildfires have more than doubled about in size in the last day or so. Is that something that you all were expecting and then how do you respond to that?
LEANNE LANGEBERG: So we have been-- daily, we are monitoring the weather conditions. And like I stated, we partner up with the National Weather Service. And they have some incredible models that they are looking at and can help keep us informed for fire weather forecasts, looking out on the 8 to 14 day outlooks, and even progressing further. But can give us a sense on how things are changing within the weather itself.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: So. you think about the time of year that we're in, it's spring. The seasons are transitioning. So you get these variable weather conditions where we may be cold one week and very warm the next week. And along with that, you get drying patterns. That bring in lower humidity. It brings in windier, gustier, windier conditions. And in this scenario, the heat that comes with it. So we're sitting upwards of 90 degrees throughout most of Minnesota.
We can look at the models and forecast and project ahead. We don't always know where the fires will develop. So having those models, knowing what the weather is telling us can help us to more strategically place folks where we expect fire conditions to be more elevated.
In addition to that, we have folks that monitor-- we refer to it as the fuels. But you think about the grasses, the brush, marshlands, even our forest. They're monitoring those fuels. And in current conditions, they're looking at how long can a particular fuel ward off a fire. So they're doing scientific--
NINA MOINI: Sure.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: --research as we go to figure out where our conditions sit. And then from both of those tools, then we can put forth efforts to keep the public informed. So Minnesota DNR has been doing a big effort to promote fire prevention throughout the spring.
Our partners, like the US Forest Service, National Park Service, we're all in a similar place, where we want to protect the public that we serve. And making sure that folks are aware of what the conditions are and how human activities outside, whether it's a small, little campfire to burning brush piles during the spring months, those are preventable human activities. And when we reach specific thresholds in the conditions, that's when we start to put forth more information to keep people informed.
NINA MOINI: I understand. And of course, people are saying that perhaps it was a man made campfire, but nothing is certain yet. Right now, it seems the focus, Leanne, is just to get things contained and go from there.
Governor Walz has also authorized the National Guard to provide support. Wishing you well with all of these efforts of coordination, and hoping for some weather conditions soon, even some rain later this week. That will hopefully be helpful. Leanne, thank you.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: Yes, thank you so much. And to everyone, please be safe out there.
NINA MOINI: Be safe. Thank you. Leanne Langeberg is with the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center. We are expecting an update from Governor Walz on the fires later today. We'll have the very latest on what he has to say from reporter Dan Crocker, who is based in Duluth. Everything you need to at mprnews.org, of course, and at All Things considered, starting at 3:00 PM.
The wildfires have led to the loss of dozens of homes and cabins and also led to evacuation orders. This morning, St. Louis County Sheriff, Gordon Ramsay, said some people who did not evacuate are unaccounted for.
GORDON RAMSEY: Their houses have been lost, so we need to determine where they are. We are hoping that they evacuated, but this is a new phase of this incident, where we are working on determining the location of people, where they're at and if they're safe.
NINA MOINI: Joining us now is Leanne Langeberg, who works with the Minnesota Interagency Fire center. Thank you for your time this afternoon, Leanne.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: Thank you for having me on. It's a pleasure to be with you today.
NINA MOINI: What we just heard from Sheriff Ramsay there is concerning. From your standpoint, what do you know about how people work together, different agencies, like yours, and perhaps the sheriff's office to try to locate some of the people who are unaccounted for?
LEANNE LANGEBERG: So it takes quite a coordination of efforts among a lot of different partners throughout Minnesota. On the side that I work on in, I'm more focused in on getting the wildfires and the equipment to be able to respond to the suppression efforts.
And even just from that standpoint, you think mobilizing a firefighter to where the response is happening, making sure that they're well equipped and understand the conditions that we're facing and how to fight fire effectively under a full suppression strategy.
Takes quite a bit of planning well in advance of days like this. It takes coordination with partners like our National Weather Service, who are monitoring the weather and conditions, folks that are looking at the fuels, and then just in general, all of our partners that have firefighters that are trained and ready to respond.
And then you take into consideration the coordination that happens at our local county levels through emergency management. They're also doing a lot of preparation and preparedness for these types of events. And while we hope that we don't face these situations, it's that continuous preparation and training and forward thinking that can help us do the best that we can to protect the Minnesota public and really even the broader public in that sense.
NINA MOINI: You're planning obviously all the time in year round, but the things that cannot be accounted for, like the weather conditions, the dryness, the heat, the wind. And I understand these wildfires have more than doubled about in size in the last day or so. Is that something that you all were expecting and then how do you respond to that?
LEANNE LANGEBERG: So we have been-- daily, we are monitoring the weather conditions. And like I stated, we partner up with the National Weather Service. And they have some incredible models that they are looking at and can help keep us informed for fire weather forecasts, looking out on the 8 to 14 day outlooks, and even progressing further. But can give us a sense on how things are changing within the weather itself.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: So. you think about the time of year that we're in, it's spring. The seasons are transitioning. So you get these variable weather conditions where we may be cold one week and very warm the next week. And along with that, you get drying patterns. That bring in lower humidity. It brings in windier, gustier, windier conditions. And in this scenario, the heat that comes with it. So we're sitting upwards of 90 degrees throughout most of Minnesota.
We can look at the models and forecast and project ahead. We don't always know where the fires will develop. So having those models, knowing what the weather is telling us can help us to more strategically place folks where we expect fire conditions to be more elevated.
In addition to that, we have folks that monitor-- we refer to it as the fuels. But you think about the grasses, the brush, marshlands, even our forest. They're monitoring those fuels. And in current conditions, they're looking at how long can a particular fuel ward off a fire. So they're doing scientific--
NINA MOINI: Sure.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: --research as we go to figure out where our conditions sit. And then from both of those tools, then we can put forth efforts to keep the public informed. So Minnesota DNR has been doing a big effort to promote fire prevention throughout the spring.
Our partners, like the US Forest Service, National Park Service, we're all in a similar place, where we want to protect the public that we serve. And making sure that folks are aware of what the conditions are and how human activities outside, whether it's a small, little campfire to burning brush piles during the spring months, those are preventable human activities. And when we reach specific thresholds in the conditions, that's when we start to put forth more information to keep people informed.
NINA MOINI: I understand. And of course, people are saying that perhaps it was a man made campfire, but nothing is certain yet. Right now, it seems the focus, Leanne, is just to get things contained and go from there.
Governor Walz has also authorized the National Guard to provide support. Wishing you well with all of these efforts of coordination, and hoping for some weather conditions soon, even some rain later this week. That will hopefully be helpful. Leanne, thank you.
LEANNE LANGEBERG: Yes, thank you so much. And to everyone, please be safe out there.
NINA MOINI: Be safe. Thank you. Leanne Langeberg is with the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center. We are expecting an update from Governor Walz on the fires later today. We'll have the very latest on what he has to say from reporter Dan Crocker, who is based in Duluth. Everything you need to at mprnews.org, of course, and at All Things considered, starting at 3:00 PM.
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