Help is on its way for those fighting the wildfires covering nearly 20,000 acres across northern Minnesota, in rural areas north of St. Louis County, north of Duluth.
A new incident command team will take over control of one of the three large fires still burning starting still on Wednesday, freeing up local and state authorities to pick up on other firefighting efforts.
DNR Forestry Division Director Patty Thielen says the high winds and dry conditions continue to be a challenge.
"I've worked for DNR Forestry for nearly 30 years and, the weather the last few days is just really unprecedented, really low humidity, high winds that has allowed fires to spread really quickly," Thielen said.
She joined several other state leaders Tuesday, where they provided updates on both conditions and what is to come.
John Cunningham is the assistant commissioner of emergency services for the Minnesota Department of Safety.
"Recovery is gonna be vitally important for the communities that are being impacted," Cunningham said. "So we will be here in the days and weeks and months to come, to help this area recover, once the flames are extinguished."
Ryan Williams with the Minnesota Incident Command Team spoke about how meteorologists are helping them fight the fire.
"So let's say the responders experience different wind, a little hotter or drier temperatures, they can relay that information to the Weather Service," Williams explains. "The Weather Service is able to plug that into their models and then from there get a more accurate reading. But if there are discrepancies, let's say the winds pick up a little earlier, they're a little higher, the Weather Service has been great to give a phone call and then make sure we can get the best forecast out to the responders on the line."
The three fires have burned at least 20,000 acres so far, a significant loss of woodland, but that number could be doubled as soon as Wednesday when officials provide another update from overnight.
It has also impacted homes and structures in the area, especially in Brimson where the Camphouse Fire has impacted residents and cabins.
St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay says the worst fire conditions may be over with but it is still unpredictable.
"Again, that can change," says Ramsey. "There's times where we thought we were ahead of it and the wind changed and picked up and we were, we were not accurate in what we were thinking. So it is very unpredictable. I'd like to think the worst is over, but I don't necessarily want to go there yet."
Ramsay says they'll get updated Wednesday morning on how fires progressed overnight and says there was a lot of prep work done ahead of these fires breaking out last weekend.
"Fortunately, I have to say it was great," the sheriff says. "The state DNR and the National Forest Service had aircraft, about 7 or 8 stationed in St. Louis County or in our immediate area, and they were prepared for these fires. And Sunday afternoon when these flared up, they were in the sky and making a difference, and it was, it was very nice to see."
There's good news on the horizon. After the next two days, temperatures and winds are supposed to ease, and rain is in the forecast for Friday according to WCCO-TV Chief Meteorologist Chris Shaffer.