Gusty winds, dry conditions cause uptick in northeastern Minnesota wildfire activity

Dry, warm, windy conditions over the weekend led to an uptick in wildfire activity in northeastern Minnesota — with more gusty winds possible Monday.

But overall progress toward containing the fires is allowing the Superior National Forest to reopen more Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness entry points this week.

Forest Service officials said Monday that there was some growth over the weekend in the Thumb Fire burning near Loon Lake, along the international border northwest of Ely.

“Fire behavior has steadily increased in the last few days. Crews are being inserted near Loon Lake to begin constructing containment lines along the southwest corner of the fire,” officials said in a Monday morning update.

There was also a new fire detected over the weekend — the lightning-caused Finstad Fire, burning near Finstad Lake near Buyck. It was last reported to be just a tenth of an acre; crews were dropping water on the fire to try to keep it from spreading.

In addition to the potential to cause hot spots to flare up, officials said Monday’s forecast gusty and shifting winds “will pose a risk to firefighters with the threat of dead or fire-weakened trees falling along roadsides and within work areas.”

Overall, the wildfires sparked by lightning in and near the BWCAW in early July — along with the Little Knife fire that spread from Canada into the U.S. — have burned nearly 70,000 acres.

More than 1,000 firefighters and support personnel continue working to contain the wildfires.

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