Crews making progress containing NE Minnesota wildfires but hotter weather raises threat
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As wildfires in and outside of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness continue to burn into their third weekend, fire officials hope for more rain and wider access to the BWCA next week.
The agency said Friday that overnight camping access will open up on July 30 at 37 of the 103 quota entry points.
Earlier this week, the agency said some entry points in Cook County will be open for day use on July 27.
All of those openings depend on there being no significant wildfire activity over the weekend. And officials warn that hotter and windier weather Friday and through the weekend could fuel an increase in fire activity once again.
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The forecast calls for strong southwest winds Friday afternoon and rain showers, with the possibility of stronger thunderstorms Friday night. If the storms bring heavy rains, that would obviously help fire containment efforts, but lightning strikes and high winds from the storms could ignite new blazes and fan the flames of existing ones.
Officials from the U.S. Forest Service, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and other agencies provided the update on firefighting efforts and weather conditions during a livestreamed press conference Friday.
Firefighting resources
More than 1,000 firefighters from as far away as Alaska, Florida, California and New Mexico are now on the ground in northeast Minnesota, helping in the fight to contain several large wildfires that have scorched more than 100 square miles of forest in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
Meanwhile, fire officials said as more crews come into the region to help battle the fires, they are making sure they have some firefighters and equipment available to respond to new fires if and when they ignite.
“That's very important that we have initial attack resources,” said Nick Petrack, fire management officer for the Superior and Chippewa National Forests. “Initial attack resources are resources that are set aside to be able to take on additional fires if we do get additional lightning strikes [and] human-caused fires.”
State officials said, they too, are preparing for the possibility of new fires breaking out in other parts of the state where the landscape is dry.
“That doesn't surprise us through this drying trend,” said Paul Lundgren, wildfire section manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “So, as that picks up potentially, if it remains dry going forward, you will see some resources reallocated … to bring others in or move folks around within the state to make sure we do stay prepared for initial attack in other places.”
The fire officials said crews have increased the amount of containment of some fires, including on the Sioux fire north of the Echo Trial, which is now 27 percent contained.
Crews continue to attack the fires from the air and the ground and use bulldozers and other heavy equipment to remove underbrush and build containment lines.
“[There are] a lot of moving parts out there. We have a lot of resources in and around the communities. They're on the ground doing a lot of great work,” said Shane Sturgill, operations section chief for the complex incident management team.
“Also, with that. There's been a lot of aviation flying with the uptick in some of our fire activity over the last couple of days. So we've had a lot of aviation assets that [are] helping check some of those fires that's in the wilderness, where we're seeing some of that significant heat.”
Also among the firefighters are crews from neighboring fire departments in northern Minnesota who have come to aid in the effort to protect hundreds of homes, cabins and resorts that could be in the path of the wildfires.
Evacuation orders and property checks
Forest Service officials said there has been no change to evacuation orders, although Lake County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Luoma said about 250 people evacuated from areas near the Camp Fire were allowed back in Thursday for a few hours to check on their properties.
“Due to the great work being done on the fire by the fire crews on the Camp Fire, we were able to offer the displaced property owners an opportunity to access their property yesterday,” Luoma said during Friday’s briefing, adding that about 250 people were able to check on approximately 110 properties.
“It was a very big success. Lots of happy property owners,” he said.
Even though officials said they know of no structures being damaged by the fires thus far, and firefighters have contained more of the blazes, they stress that conditions can change and fire activity can surge any time, so they warn people near the fires to stay ready to evacuate at any time.
“The folks that still remain in those ‘ready, set’ areas [need to] be thinking about your plans in the event that we do have to change to a go,” said Sturgill. “Think about what you need to take and have those ready. Don't wait till the last minute. Please think about how you're going to get there and where you're going to go, and what you need to take with you.”
