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Live updates: Wildfires in Minnesota
MPR News Staff
Updated:

Officials see NE Minnesota firefight continuing into the fall; new fire ID'd

'Odds are these fires will be here until it snows,' one official says

Wildfire smoke casts an orange hue over northern Minnesota landscapes
The landscape near the Gunflint Trail in northern Minnesota is cast in an orange hue as a result of wildfire smoke on Tuesday.
Courtesy of Kerry Lane

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State and federal officials working to gain control of fires burning across northeastern Minnesota offered little hope Wednesday of a quick end to the battle. One said he expected the firefight to continue into the fall; another said “fires will be here until it snows.”

Briefing reporters early Wednesday afternoon, those officials also said a new fire was identified coming in from Canada. Now known as the Little Knife Fire, it’s estimated at 28,000 acres with about 6,000 acres in Minnesota west of the Gunflint Trail.

Given the conditions and weather forecasts, “I highly feel like this is going on for a while,” Nick Petrack, fire management officer for the Superior and Chippewa National Forests, told reporters of the overall firefighting effort. “If we do see some rain, that does not mean the fire is out.”

Among the other updates Wednesday:

  • Officials raised alarm about a private drone seen in the airspace above the firefight. “Drones and firefighting do not mix,” said Jason Randall, safety manager for the National Incident Management Organization. If the air space isn’t secure, “we have no choice but to have our aircraft return to base.” About 400 to 500 firefighters are on the ground, none have been hurt.

  • National Weather Service meteorologist Phillip Manuel described current cloudy conditions as a “momentary pause” in the fire weather and said conditions wouldn’t ease meaningfully unless the area got a storm heavy enough to get its own name. “Odds are these fires will be here until it snows,” he said.

  • Evacuations from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness are still taking place, said Tom Hall, agency administrator for the Superior National Forest. Two-person teams continue to cross the Boundary Water looking for campers who may not know they need to leave. He didn’t have an estimate of how many might still be in the BWCA.

Officials continued to caution that conditions were extremely fluid and urged residents to stay vigilant on “ready-set-go” orders for possible evacuations.

Petrack said in his 25 years in the Superior National Forest, this season had the most and number of fires in July that he’s seen. “I would say we would be in this until fall.”

Watch: Officials brief reporters Wednesday afternoon on fires in NE Minnesota