Minnesota filmmaker returns to cabin and finds 'just absolute destruction'

Fighting back tears, documentary filmmaker Keri Pickett sifted through the rubble of what remained of her northeastern Minnesota cabin Sunday after the Camp House fire swept through the area earlier in the week.

“Everything at the ground level, all the metal roofing is on top of a pile of just absolute destruction,” she said. “Everything is kind of melted together and a huge jumble, and it just looks like an ancient site, like it's been here for a million years like this.”

Pickett’s cabin, purchased through an inheritance after her aunt’s death, was only about a half mile from the epicenter of the blaze. The only things that were spared was a cast iron pan and, surprisingly, a recently built sauna.

“It was saved because I had a huge amount of chopped firewood right behind it, and the fire came towards the sauna, but then that hot, hot fire must have stopped it from advancing. It created a fire break,” Pickett said. “Even though the back side of the sauna, the wiring is melted, and the wood is charred, the sauna looks totally usable.”

But the sauna was locked when the fire arrived, and the key was in the cabin at the time. Pickett was searching through what was left to find it so she could see the extent of the fire’s damage to the interior.

Pickett said char lines on some of the surrounding trees went up 30 feet. Almost a week later after fire swept through the area, she said areas of her property were still smoldering.

“My neighbor down the road, he lost his childhood home, his parents’ home, and he lost it right away,” Pickett said.

Pickett was later joined by another neighbor Greg Ruberg, who stopped by to check on her. He said all the buildings on his property — about a quarter mile from Pickett’s — were fine as the fire appeared to burn all the way around them following the lakeshore up a ridge. While he credits getting rid of some balsam trees earlier in the year for protecting his property, he said the real heroes are the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the firefighters.

“The planes, helicopters and float planes were dropping water on the front of the fire. And I think we just got really lucky,” he said. “I watched plane after plane hit the fire from the road. I could tell our property was burning. I could see the smoke coming up from the road, so I knew around the cabin was burning.”

While Ruberg’s property made it out of the ordeal relatively unscathed he said others weren’t as fortunate.

“I’m kind of heartbroken for everybody around me, because I know people lost their homes and their cabins and garages,” he said. “All three other properties on this road are completely gone, including a relative and others.”

The Minnesota Interagency Coordination Center reports favorable weather conditions over the weekend helped in the fight against the wildfires in northeastern Minnesota, but that’s forecasted to change.

“The fact that we've had a little bit of rain, you know, we are still in that dry condition, and the humidities go back down later in the week,” said Mary Nordeen, MNICC public information officer. “So that high fire danger remains.”

More than 400 firefighters are helping fight the blazes.

Camp House Fire near Brimson

• 13,407 acres as of Sunday morning

• 28 percent containment

• About 150 structures destroyed, including homes and cabins

Jenkins Creek Fire southeast of Hoyt Lakes

• 16,281 acres as of Sunday morning

• Zero-percent containment

• At least one structure destroyed

Munger Shaw/Three Lake Road Fire east of Canyon

• 1,600 acres as of Sunday morning

• 75 percent containment

• At least one structure destroyed

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