Crews continue to battle BWCA fire

Ground crews are still battling the Cummings Lake fire Monday near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The fire, which started Sunday afternoon, is now about 20 acres in size and is located in a lowland area about 12 miles northwest of Ely. Five aircraft were attacking a 50-acre fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on Sunday night not far from Ely, the Duluth News Tribune reports. Crews were on their way to the remote site.

Author:
BMTN Staff
Updated:
Mar 8, 2018
Original:
Sep 2, 2012

Ground crews were still battling the Cummings Lake fire Monday near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness northwest of Ely, the Pioneer Press reports.

The paper said the fire is about 20 acres in size, and is located in a black spruce in a lowland area about 12 miles northwest of Ely. The fire started Sunday after, the Duluth News Tribune said.

Jean Goad, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center in Grand Rapids, told the newspaper the fire in the Superior National Forest in the Cummings Lake area was was first estimated at about 50 acres in size. Five aircraft were battling the flames. Ground crews were on their way to the remote site.

The fire danger rating is high or very high in many central and northern Minnesota counties this Labor Day weekend, KSTP reports.

The Department of Natural Resources is reminding all residents and visitors that campfires should not be bigger than three feet high and three feet across.

The DNR Forestry Division is also restricting burning permits in some areas of the state this week.

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An all-clear was given around 9 p.m. Thursday, with residents in the area allowed to return to their homes.

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The increased enforcement is part of the Operation Dry Water initiative.

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The kayakers became stranded at Redhead Mountain Bike Park Thursday afternoon.

The Forest Service has closed some areas of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, where three new wildfires are burning. The largest is 75 acres. But crews are aggressively fighting another two-acre fire because it's near an area of dry timber that was part of the 1999 blowdown.

Wildland firefighters were quick to head off to a fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, first reported Sunday afternoon northwest of Ely, which has grown to about 30 acres and will get bigger before it can be contained, officials said. No structures were immediately threatened. The cause isn't yet known.

Fire crews have left the smoldering Boundary Waters Canoe area, confident any hotspots will burn themselves out. Even as smoke continues to rise, new growth is returning.

The fires burning in the Boundary Water Canoe Area are mostly small, lightning-sparked blazes. A little rain Thursday didn't do much to help put them out. A small area of the BWCA wilderness and a hiking trail were closed. The biggest fire is the 50-acre Cummings Lake fire, which has not grown much in the last few days.

A Tuesday night storm that passed through the Superior National Forest was a lose-lose for firefighters: it generated very little rain but plenty of lightning. A fire that's been burning since Sunday is a little bigger, but is now about 60 percent contained. Meanwhile, five smaller fires that were started by lightning strikes have forced the closure of a small part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

The wildfires that have been plaguing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota are contained, controlled or out, the U.S. Forest Service reported Saturday. However, with the forecast of dry weather in the next few days, campfire restrictions remain in the area and some lake and trail closures are still in effect.

Officials Saturday were still fighting two small fires by air and ground in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as a 500-acre blaze burning just across the Canadian border. Canadian crews are attacking a "very active" fire known as Fort Frances No. 59, the Duluth News Tribune reports.

Minnesota is sending many of its firefighters and equipment to southwestern states plagued by prolonged dry conditions. The Duluth News Tribune reports most of Minnesota’s forested areas have seen above-normal rainfall. Last summer was a much different story. Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the Pagami Creek fire east of Ely.

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