Fire crews are contending with another day of volatile fire conditions in northeast Minnesota on Tuesday, as they continue to battle large wildfires that have burned more than 20,000 acres and dozens of structures.
Three separate major fires continued to burn north of Duluth.
“Any one of these fires would tax our system, but the fact we have three is is very, very challenging,” St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay told MPR News on Tuesday morning.
The largest of the fires — the Camp House Fire — left damage near Brimson that Ramsay said “reminded me a lot of the video I saw from the California fires not too long ago, where there’s nothing left but chimneys and cinder blocks and metal.”
“This is going to be one of the most significant fires in the history of St. Louis County,” he said.
There are no reports of injuries from any of the fires, but Ramsay said officials are trying to locate some people who lived in the fire zone.
“Some people chose not to evacuate, and their houses have been lost, so we need to determine where they are,” he said. “We are hoping that they evacuated, but this is a new phase of this incident, where we are working on determining the location of people, where they’re at and if they’re safe.”
During a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul, Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials briefed reporters on firefighting efforts. So far, all three of the large fires are zero-percent contained, they said.
Unseasonably hot weather, wind, low humidity and drought-like conditions have contributed to creating a worse-than-usual fire season.
Patty Thielen, forestry director for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said as of mid May, fires already have burned more than 37,000 acres, compared to about 12,000 acres in an average year.
“This is usually our busiest time of year for fires, in April and May,” she said. “So it’s not an unusual season, but it’s been a really tough year.”
The Camp House fire north of Duluth alone has burned close to 12,000 acres so far, according to Ryan Williams, incident commander trainee for the Camp House fire. Speaking to reporters in Two Harbors today, he said 80 responders from federal, state, municipal and local partners are fighting the fire.
Williams said the biggest issue right now is spot fires, as there’s a lot of dead trees that are serving as fuel for the fire.
“Couple that with the challenging winds, as you feel right here today, the lake effect has been influencing the fire, causing issue to firefighters with containment as they do their best to suppress the fire and again, prioritize point protection,” Williams said.
Williams said that on Wednesday, the Eastern Area Complex Incident Management team will take over handling the Camp House and Jenkins fires. The exact time at which that will happen has not yet been determined, he said.
Williams said he’s optimistic that rain expected later in the week will help firefighting efforts and help crews begin to contain the raging fires.
With hot, dry weather expected to continue until Thursday, the situation is still developing and dangerous, Gov. Walz said. He urged people to heed burning restrictions, and to evacuate if asked to do so.
“I know these are difficult decisions to make,” Walz said. “It’s not only for your own safety. It’s for the firefighters safety, because protecting these buildings in life puts them at risk.”
Walz has called out the National Guard to assist in the firefighting effort.