A wildfire torched 150 homes and 50 miles of forest, but it didn't kill Reba the chicken
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More than 300 firefighters from around the country are battling the Brimson Complex, two major fires still burning largely uncontained in the forests north of Duluth.
The fires have scorched around 50 square miles of trees, and destroyed about 150 structures, including many homes and cabins near the town of Brimson.
But amidst the devastation, uplifting stories have emerged from the ashes, of community members rallying around those in need, of firefighters working tirelessly to save homes, and of beloved animals with a will to survive.
Six days ago, I first met Mikala Schliep outside Hugo’s, the bar and restaurant that has served as an informal community hub and gathering spot during the fires.
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She and her boyfriend had just gone back to the house they’ve been building for the past three years. They wanted to grab a couple more things. But then the fire roared across the highway towards them. It engulfed her neighbor’s house.
“Suddenly there was 15-foot flames on each side of the road,” said Schliep. “It was just a big firewall on both sides and there was so much smoke.”
They drove through fire across the road to escape. She was convinced that was the last time she’d see her home. But when I called her the next day, she had heard from emergency responders that somehow, her house survived.
“I thought we lost everything, but, you know, I had some chickens, and they’re gone, and that’s pretty emotional,” she said. “I know they’re just chickens, but it’s like, man, those are part of the family.”
After Schliep escaped, a crew of firefighters pulled up to her house.
“A lot of the woods [were] still on fire, you know, [it was a] pretty smoky environment,” recalled John Schlangen, the second assistant chief for the Two Harbors Fire Department.
They started to spray water on a pile of siding that was burning next to the house, to prevent her home from going up in flames, when he saw a chicken emerge from somewhere.
“It came walking up to the fire engine, which I just kind of thought was odd, and it kind of just hung out around the engine, around people, until we had finished putting out the fire to save the structures that were left,” Schlangen said.
Firefighter Beth Haselow was there too.
“I noticed the chicken right away,” she said.
Haselow, who has chickens of her own and started training with the department in December, said she “just kind of felt really, really bad for her, and was hoping I could take her home. I wasn’t sure if I would get in trouble, but I just couldn’t leave without her and was hoping that I could maybe make somebody’s day a little brighter by saving the chicken."
When they were ready to leave, the chicken was hiding under the engine.
“I figured, well, we can’t move the truck with her under there,” Schlangen said. “So I crawled under the truck and was able to get a hold of her and roll out with the chicken and pass her off to Beth.”
The chicken was in rough shape.
“She had burns on her and the feathers were kind of singed. She obviously experienced quite a bit before she got out of there,” Schlangen said.
Haselow took the chicken back to her house and then she called Mikala Schliep to tell her the good news.
Schliep said she was “over the moon.” She thought all her chickens had died in the fire.
“You know, it was me, the dog, the chickens, and I couldn't get us all at one time,” she said.
The chicken’s name is Reba.
“She’s a little red thing. She’s so cute,” Schliep said. “I can’t even believe it. They probably thought the world was ending cause I can imagine how scary it was for me. I can’t even imagine for them."
Reba is doing fine, Haselow said, and even laying eggs again.
She’s offered to incubate some of her chickens' eggs, so that Reba will have some friends in the near future.
