Authorities attack the Greenwood Fire from air and ground
About 75 residences have evacuated due to the northeastern Minnesota fire
Updated: 7:05 p.m.
Authorities fought a northeastern Minnesota wildfire from the air and on the ground Tuesday, following the evacuation of about 75 residences in the Superior National Forest.
The fire, which was first spotted Sunday near Greenwood Lake, had expanded to about 3.1 square miles by Tuesday. The Minnesota National Guard is assisting in the firefighting efforts. Warm weather and gusty winds from the south were forecast to continue for days.
“Full suppression tactics are being used to reduce fire spread,” forest officials said in a statement.
Fire officials credit the arrival of additional aircraft Tuesday with helping to keep the fire at bay. Airplanes skimmed over the surface of Sand Lake, scooped up water, and dumped it over the Greenwood Fire every two minutes or so.
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“They're knocking some of the steam out of the head of the fire,” explained incident commander Jed Backe. “They've been keeping this fire somewhat in check, buying us time so that we can try and get resources in on the ground.”
Backe said the fire is within one-half to three-quarters of a mile from the nearest structure in the McDougal Lake area. But he said the fire hasn’t gotten any closer in the past couple days because of a shift in the wind.
“So it's not pushing the fire directly at those structures as much anymore, but it is still flanking out. The sides are slowly approaching. So we're utilizing the aircraft to cool down those flanks. And then as they can get under the smoke, they'll hit the head of the fire; the hottest, most hard-driven portion of the fire.”
About 65 firefighters are currently working to corral the fire. A dedicated incident management team from the eastern U.S. is scheduled to assume full command Wednesday morning. That will free up local firefighters to respond to any new fires that are sparked.
Officials say competition is fierce across the country for firefighting resources, including aircraft and ground crews. Fire management officer Nick Petrak said so far they’ve been able to secure the aerial resources they need to fight the blaze. But he says they’re hoping for more.
“There are some pending resource order requests out,” Petrak said. “We're just waiting to hear if we will receive them, for a few more aircraft and additional personnel we're hoping to get.”
The Greenwood Fire has burned aggressively, with flames torching treetops and throwing embers out a half mile in front of the blaze. Officials say it’s crucial they at least maintain the number of aircraft available to fight the fire.
“If for any reason we were to lose the aircraft that we have, the conditions would change and the fire would pick up in intensity very quickly,” said Backe.
Lake County sheriff's deputies and emergency management personnel went door to door Monday to notify residents that they were in the evacuation zone near McDougal Lake, or left notes on doors if nobody was home. Many dwellings in the area, which is deep in the forest, are seasonal cabins.
Lake County Sheriff Carey Johnson said about 80 residences had been evacuated, with just a couple homeowners choosing to stay. He said deputies were also out warning other households beyond the current evacuation order, in case the fire were to aggressively spread.
Two highways through the area were closed Monday as the firefighting effort picked up speed and the fire spread to the north.
The cause of the Greenwood Lake fire has not been determined. The lake is located about 15 miles southwest of Isabella, the nearest town.
While the fire hasn't reached the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the Forest Service on Tuesday closed a small portion of the wilderness area west of Isabella Lake.
The Superior National Forest also continues to monitor or fight several smaller fires in remote parts of the Boundary Waters and near Ely, using tanker planes, helicopters and bulldozers.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was fighting two other wildfires to the west that were detected over the weekend in remote parts of sparsely populated Lake of the Woods County, which had grown to 80 and 60 acres.
Drought conditions from the western U.S. across the northern plains to Minnesota have raised wildfire risks across a broad swath of the country.
Firefighters in California faced more dangerously windy weather Tuesday as they struggled to keep the nation’s largest wildfire from moving toward Susanville, a northern California county seat, and other small mountain communities. The Dixie Fire is the largest of nearly 100 major wildfires burning across more than a dozen Western states.