‘Unhealthy’ air quality expected in eastern Minnesota through Monday afternoon due to wildfire smoke

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More than a dozen wildfires are still burning in Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The BWCA remains closed until at least Friday. 

Officials say firefighters have been making good progress as the weather has become more moderate. There are about 700 firefighters who have been focusing especially on protecting homes, cabins and resorts. 

Get the latest information on wildfires in Minnesota

They’ve been able to establish control lines on a number of the fires including the largest near Ely named the Camp Fire. It caused evacuations near Fernburg Road. 

However, multiple fires in and near the Boundary Waters are still burning uncontained. The amount of fires and where they’re located continue to make it difficult to draw containment lines around these fires. Once they can be contained, the next challenge will be extinguishing the fires completely since they’re burning deep within a duff layer of the forest floor 20 to 30 inches down. 

Officials warn there is more fire season is ahead. The state is still early in it’s fire season, although fires on this scale are unusual. 

Firefighters and communities will brace for thunderstorms to move through Monday night after lightning was determined to be the cause the fires burning in the area. After Monday, windy conditions will return, which can be critical for fire conditions while northeastern Minnesota remains hot and dry. 

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Minnesota Wildfires

Live updates: Wildfires in Minnesota

Dan Kraker

Author

More than a dozen wildfires are still burning in the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The BWCA remains closed until at least Friday. 

More than a dozen wildfires still burn in Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters, which remains closed until at least Friday. 

Dan Kraker shares the latest on the northeastern Minnesota fires

Two people installing a thank you firefighters sign

Over a dozen wildfires are still burning in Superior National Forest and BWCA

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