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Favorable weather conditions have helped crews make good progress toward containing a wildfire at Isle Royale National Park, and allowed park officials to reopen some trails and campgrounds.

Authorities are still trying to determine how the fire started.

 that high humidity and light winds slowed the spread of the 6-acre fire on the Lake Superior island about 20 miles off Minnesota's North Shore.

The conditions also allowed firefighters — including a team of 10 from Minnesota — to lay hose line around the fire's perimeter. More favorable weather is in the forecast.

“While significant progress suppressing the fire has occurred,” the Park Service reported Tuesday, “the fire is not yet considered contained.”

 in the Mount Franklin area on the eastern end of the island, when people saw smoke rising into the air. It was initially estimated at more than 10 acres in size on Sunday, before further observations allowed for a better estimate of 6 acres.

Fire on Isle Royale prompts closures, trail evacuations

Park officials initially closed a number of trails and several campgrounds in the area, and evacuated some hikers and campers. The trail closures severed the continuous trail access from Rock Harbor at the island's eastern end, to Windigo on the west.

But on Tuesday, the Park Service said that access was restored with the reopening of the Rock Harbor Trail between Rock Harbor and Daisy Farm. The Three Mile campground is also back open, as is the Lane Cove campground for people arriving by water.

Closures still in place as of Tuesday include: 

“While fire behavior is minimal, some tree torching has still been observed, and there is considerable concern about falling trees in the affected fire area,” officials said Tuesday. 

Authorities said that while the fire investigation is ongoing,  they're 

 about an illegal fire and an associated camp on the night of Aug. 12 along the Mount Franklin Trail. 

No structural damage or injuries have been reported from the fire.

Tim Nelson

Author

Andrew Krueger

Favorable weather conditions have helped crews make good progress toward containing a wildfire at Isle Royale National Park, and allowed park officials to reopen some trails and campgrounds.


Favorable weather helps crews make progress toward containing Isle Royale wildfire

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