'More fire season ahead:' As crews battle flames and residents wait with bags packed
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Thousands of people in northeastern Minnesota remain displaced or on standby as wildfires continue to burn across the region. Wildfires in northeastern Minnesota have burned an estimated 70,000 acres, and the U.S. Forest Service has extended its closure of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness through at least Friday.
About 8,000 campers have been evacuated, and countless others have had to leave resorts, cabins and permanent homes in the area. Many more are packed and waiting, just in case they're ordered to leave.
On Saturday evening, Forest Service pilot Jeremy Harmon returned from an observation flight in a vintage de Havilland Beaver. For nearly two hours, he flew over the locations of known lightning strikes to check for any new fires.
Harmon taxis the vintage aircraft to the dock at the Forest Service float plane base in Ely and emerges with good news.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
“Did not see any new starts. Without going and actually putting eyes on that area, detecting any smoke, that’s where we still have to go out and take a look at it. Otherwise, we just have a dot on the map,” he said.
A lightning strike or an ember caught in an updraft could ignite a new wildfire with little warning.
That’s why Harmon and his fellow pilots are constantly scanning the forest below, serving as the eyes on the ground that incident commanders rely on to make daily decisions about where to deploy resources and which areas to evacuate.
Ely itself is not in immediate danger. But authorities have designated rural areas to the north, west and east of the city as “ready,” “set” and “go” zones.
Molly Olson and her family live just outside Ely, a hop and a skip from the evacuation zone along Fernberg Road.
Stacked near the front door of the timber-frame home that her husband, Mark, built are plastic tubs packed with clothes and other essentials, along with a picnic basket full of important personal documents.
“We just have a pile of stuff in the entry of the house, and more things in the car. And it’s just been stressful and a lot of waiting.”
Olson says they got a “go” order to evacuate Tuesday, but incident managers soon reversed it.
“We have a plan, but it’s just a waiting game.”
Liz Engelman did have to evacuate.
She runs the Tofte Lake Center, an artists’ retreat in an area threatened by the Camp Fire. A group of parents and children had to leave soon after they arrived. Engelman and her dog are staying with a colleague in Ely.
After a recent community gathering at City Hall, Engelman said she’s glad everyone got out safely, and she’s hoping things will return to normal soon.
"I’m concerned in the sense that I, as everybody is, hope that their property is safe. But I feel that we’re in such good hands. I feel like the threat is being monitored, precautions are being taken. So I’m less worried about that and more worried about when I can get back."
At a community meeting Sunday at Minnesota North College in Ely, Forest Service fire behavior analyst Art Gonzales, who recently arrived from Arizona, said the conditions are unlike anything he's seen before.
"I will tell you it is mind blowing to see how this fire was island hopping. It would burn over a half mile to a mile of water, land in available fuels, burn those fuels, get up, and go to the next island. That’s incredible. That’s a lot of energy."
Gonzales says the fire is burning plant material two to three feet below ground, and it'll take a sustained effort — and heavy rain — to get it under control.
And he was blunt.
"I say there’s more fire season ahead of you than there is behind you."
Incident Commander Kyle Smith said there are nearly 800 firefighters from across the country working in Minnesota. He said that no one has been injured, and no buildings have burned.
For now, firefighters continue working to keep the flames from spreading while families wait for word on when they'll be able to return home.
