By Patrick Garmoe
Duluth News-Tribune (Minnesota)
Copyright 2007 Duluth News-Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
GRAND MARAIS, Minn. — The week-old Ham Lake fire moved north into Canada on Sunday, pushed by daylong winds from the south and east.
On the map, it looked like five new tentacles creeping northward.
“There’s been a strong push fueled by those southern and eastern winds,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Mark Van Every said.
The fire has jumped to uninhabited Horseshoe Island on Saganaga Lake, Van Every said. In case the fire spreads to neighboring islands, Canadian officials began airlifting hundreds of residents out of the area Sunday.
Another 6,569 acres burned Sunday, bringing the total to 59,611 acres.
About 31,000 burned acres are on the American side, but most of Sunday’s burning was in Canada.
Meanwhile, the southeast “finger” bisected by the Gunflint Trail, that now ends south of Rush Lake, fattened up.
“Things have held pretty well, not that they haven’t been pushed a little bit,” Van Every said.
Firefighters managed to secure a large chunk of land on both sides of the midsection of the finger.
Firefighters also made headway on containment, securing the southern boundary of the fire from Round Lake nearly to Little Gunflint Lake.
In addition, a large section of the western portion of the trail is largely secured.
Officially, the fire is 15 percent contained, but Jeff Edmonds, fire information officer, suspects that figure might be higher, based on the latest publicly released map. The fire reportedly had been only 5 percent contained most of the week.
“It’s progress,” Edmonds said, “but it’s a huge fire.”
Cook County officials warned that if the wind kicks up at all, the area from roughly the Trail Center and the Poplar fire station may have to be evacuated, despite people being allowed back in on Saturday.
When the evacuation was lifted at noon Saturday, business owners and homeowners in the newly opened three-mile stretch began moving back and opening their doors. But the area remained largely empty, devoid of tourists.
The danger Sunday was the wind, said Leif Lunde, chief deputy of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department. “We were worried the winds would blow from the west,” he said.
They didn’t.
But today, the wind is predicted to be from the south, then shift to the north.
Lunde said if the winds increase or switch direction, there’s a good chance the area around Trail Center and Hungry Jack Lodge, where people were again allowed in at noon Saturday, would be re-evacuated, Lunde said. “We likely will have to evacuate the Poplar Lake area again,” he said.
Firefighters are particularly worried about high winds, especially if they’re from the east or west.
Either direction could mean the fire, which hasn’t moved east or west since Thursday, would be burning through more miles of trees and homes.
Lunde said if the weather cooperates, there’s a chance by the middle of the week that residents who live near Seagull Lake and Maraboeuf Lake will be allowed to temporarily stop by their cabins to see how things look, and grab items they may need.
“It would be a very limited amount of time,” Lunde said. “You’re not moving back.”
He advised focusing on just grabbing the four Ps: Pills, pictures, pets, photos.
His statements prompted some residents along the Gunflint Trail, already displaced from their homes for a week, to wonder if it might be weeks, not days, before they can permanently return to the far stretches of the trail.
Another burn
After two successful deliberate burns, firefighters plan another burn in the area of Mayhew Lake.
“The same thing we did on this west side, we want to do on the east side,” Van Every said.
Wayne and Cynthia Dosier of Winona, Minn., worry that if the fire in the finger moves much to the west, the cabin they built four years ago -- accessible only by water -- will vanish forever.
“We built it by hand. We hauled it all in by boat,” Cynthia Dosier said, still obviously proud of the feat four years ago.
They remember it took 100 trips. “It was a labor of love,” Cynthia Dosier said.
Like the Dosiers, locals can immediately rattle off the date they moved into or bought their cabin.
Talk to them a few minutes more, and out pour the stories of gorgeous Minnesota summer memories.
Which was why, for another day, fire officials were pleased to announce that no new structures had been added to the 133 burned structures, of which 61 were homes, 17 commercial buildings and 55 outbuildings or some other type of structure.
Some figures might be slightly lower than previous figures after officials released a revised, more-accurate list.
Of the 133 structures burned, eight are in Canada, and six of them are homes. The price tag for all the damaged property stands at $3.7 million.
Another 200 homes and 20 commercial buildings are still in the path of the flames.
A news release from the Interagency Fire Center estimated firefightring costs at nearly $4 million by Sunday.
The next update is scheduled at 9 a.m. today in downtown Grand Marais. The 7 p.m. meetings can be heard live on the Web site of WTIP-FM 90.7.
Several state legislators have pledged to seek assistance for people affected by the fire.
Evacuees continued to gather at the Grand Marais Community Center and nearby Bethlehem Lutheran Church for community meals and support. The community center will continue to be open from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. until further notice.
The Cook County Assessor’s office is offering pictures of properties that may have been affected by the fire, made available for insurance purposes.