A large and growing wildfire has broken out in the Superior National Forest, and Governor Tim Walz has called up the National Guard to help fight it.
According to a news release from the Forest Service, "Greenwood Fire" named for its proximity to Greenwood Lake which is about 15 miles southwest of Isabella, Minnesota, has consumed several hundred acres so far. The exact size of the fire is still unknown. The Forest Service says efforts are being made from the air and ground to contain the blaze.
Governor Walz, in a press release Sunday night, calls the Guard's additional support, "Critical to responding to the wildfires and protecting the safety of Minnesotans and their property."
Sunday, the DNR had put up fire danger warnings for much of the state due to our historic drought, combining with extremely dry air and gusty winds.
Joanna Gilkeson is a Superior National Forest Information Officer. She told WCCO's Mark Freie about what they're doing to battle the blazes.
"There's three levels of teams," Gilkenson explains. "We have a type three team, type two team, and a type one team. And the level of the team depends on the amount of resources that that team comes with, and the skill level that that team comes with. So a type three team is typical of responding to smaller fires. So when we have, you know, a 10 or 20, 30, 40 acre fire, that's typically going to be responded to by a type three fire team depending on the complexity of that fire. As you're starting to see high complexity access to fire, so fires in the Boundary Waters, fires and intense blow down, fires with poor access, or really large fires, that's when you start to get into the type two or even the type one team. So we ordered a type two incident management team, and they'll be briefing into the fire this evening actually, and starting to take over management of the fire tomorrow. And that's the type two Eastern Area Gold Team that'll be coming in."
According to WTIP Radio in Grand Marais, home owners near the McDougal Lake area in Lake County are being evacuated due the wildfire near Isabella.
There are also multiple fires burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness at this time.
The John Elk Fire is 2.5 miles south of Little Saganaga Lake in the BWCA and was approximately 1.25 acres in size as of Saturday night. Another new fire, the Whelp Fire, is located Sawbill Lake in the BWCA and that one was only a quarter acre in size as of Saturday night.
Despite those small fires, the DNR is concerned because much of the state is suffering through an historic drought, which combined with extremely dry air and gusty winds over the weekend, is increasing the danger even the smallest fires could spread out of control.
For much of the summer, Minnesota has dealt with smoky air and air quality issues due to wildfires burning through parts of Canada. High heat and extremely dry conditions across much of the western half of the U.S. and Canada has made this a very dangerous and busy fire season.
Related
The latest drought numbers for Minnesota are historically bad. Nearly 7.4 percent of the state is experiencing exceptional drought, which is the drought monitor's highest and worse category. In the history of the Drought Monitor (back to 2000) this is the first time parts of Minnesota have been under Exceptional Drought.