By Janna Goerdt
Duluth News-Tribune
Copyright 2007 Duluth News-Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
GUNFLINT TRAIL, Minn. — The Ham Lake fire sent out new fingers of flame on the south side of the Gunflint Trail on Friday, but lighter winds and cooler weather kept the fire from exploding as it had the day before.
That good news was tempered a bit, however, by an updated tally of how much has been lost to the fire.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Department said the fire had destroyed 134 buildings at an estimated loss of $3.7 million, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Mark Van Every said Friday night.
That includes 62 homes and cabins, 44 buildings at the Wilderness Canoe Base, 22 outbuildings and six garages.
“Jesus,” Loon Lake resident Bob Nicholson said softly when he heard that grim tally.
Nicholson and his wife, Robin, began cutting trees at their family cabin at 8 a.m. Thursday, the day the Ham Lake fire grew dramatically.
They were saving the largest and most treasured trees -- big white pines and old birches -- for the end, Bob Nicholson said, though they were forced to evacuate just after 2 p.m. Thursday. They grabbed the cabin journal, pictures and some equipment and headed for Grand Marais.
As far as they know, their cabin is still standing, though they know there’s still a danger of the fire flaring up and returning to claim their cabin.
“This fire is not over, it’s not out,” Van Every said. “There’s a real possibility the fire will take big runs like it did [Thursday]. There are still a lot of things that could happen, yet.”
The Gunflint Trail remained closed to all outside traffic past the Poplar fire station, and a “precautionary” evacuation was in effect for much of the rest of the trail.
Fire information officer Bill Paxton said that while no one was certain how many people in the precautionary evacuation area had left their property, he said “most people have evacuated.”
Fire officials revised their earlier estimate of 55,000 acres affected by the fire downward to about 52,000 acres, or 81 square miles. More than 650 people have been working the fire, which has cost more than $3.19 million to battle.
In other developments:
-- On Friday, fire crews were mopping up several small spots in and around 176 acres, or less than 1 square mile, burned by wildfire Thursday near Cherry.
The fire was reported about two miles north of Cherry. A dozen houses were temporarily evacuated. The fire was contained by 7:30 p.m., and people were allowed back into their homes by nightfall.
Firefighters from the state and 20 fire departments responded to protect buildings and fight the fire. The Department of Natural Resources fought the fire with four bulldozers, six tracked vehicles, six engines, four water-dropping helicopters, two water-scooping CL215 planes, one air tanker dropping retardant and one water-scooping Fire Boss plane.
-- A change in wind direction has pushed smoke from the Ham Lake fire to areas around the Twin Ports.
“The winds have turned out of the northeast so the smoke plume has spread southwest toward Duluth,” said Roman Berdes, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Duluth.
The forecast calls for mostly dry conditions along the Gunflint Trail.
-- Drought conditions have prompted the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to impose burning restrictions in the Northland, including the city of Duluth. As of Friday, recreational fires were prohibited in Northeastern Minnesota. Smoking outdoors still is permissible, but the Duluth Fire Department advises extreme caution. The burning restrictions will remain in place until further notice.
-- The DNR announced that, effective immediately and until further notice, campfires and charcoal grills are banned in state parks, state forest recreation areas and waysides in Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties.
On the Ham Lake fire front, Van Every gestured to a map: “Up here on the north end of Gunflint Lake, it’s possible, and likely, that there were [structure] losses in this area.”
While there have been no official reports of buildings lost on the Canadian side of the fire, resort owners on the south shore of Gunflint Lake said they were in contact with friends and fellow resort owners on the lake’s north side who confirmed they lost buildings.
Five strike teams of engine crews were concentrating on protecting homes between Gunflint and Loon Lakes, Van Every said. If, as seems likely today, the wind begins pushing the fire to the west, the concern is that homes and buildings in that area will be threatened again.
The fire continued to send new fingers to the south, cutting across the Gunflint Trail and sending persistent fingers of fire south of Rush Lake and through the wilderness.
Viewed from the sky late Friday afternoon, the Gunflint Trail wound its way north and west until it disappeared beneath a brown haze. Trees torched at the head of each of those south-running fingers, and a pair of CL-215 planes made repeated water drops on each one. On the fire’s southwest edge, a wall of flame marched steadily forward, and wind gusts ruffled the surface of small lakes in the path of the fire storm.
Mike Jones, chief pilot with Construction Helicopters of Ypsilanti, Mich., was on his fourth day of fighting the fire. He was one of the pilots in a Sikorsky S61N helicopter, fitted with a bucket that could hold 780 gallons.
The fire seemed to lay down a bit on Friday, Jones said. He had been hitting the fire’s east flank near Gunflint Lake and the Gunflint Lodge.
That was one area that had been spared by the fire, said owner Bruce Kerfoot. After evacuating the last of the guests, more than 500 firefighters streamed into the lodge on Thursday for dinner, Kerfoot said.
State legislators Rep. David Dill and Sen. Tom Bakk planned to tour the fire by helicopter early this morning, Cook County Commissioner Bob Fenwick said. Bakk was able to delay two days of tax committee testimony in order to visit the area, Fenwick said.
Elsewhere around the country:
-- Firefighters turned back flames that threatened Santa Catalina Island’s main city, Avalon, and some residents planned to return to their homes Friday after thousands were forced to evacuate a day earlier. The wildfire was 4,000 acres, or more than 6 square miles, and was only 10 percent contained early Friday. But worries were eased by the day’s favorable weather forecast and the arrival of dozens of fire trucks and air tankers on the narrow, mountainous island 30 miles off Los Angeles.
“Everyone is working very hard to make sure that the people are safe and the animals are safe,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday. Most of the 76-square-mile island is owned by a land conservancy, home to wildlife including the Catalina Island fox, North American bison and bald eagle.
One home and a few small structures in the canyons outside the city burned. About 3,800 residents and tourists fled.
-- Firefighters were still working Friday to surround what remained of the Griffith Park fire outside Los Angeles, which briefly chased people from homes and threatened the park’s landmark observatory and zoo.
-- Firefighters battled the second Georgia wildfire to burn more than 100,000 acres as gusty winds spread the fast-moving blaze farther into northern Florida and toward the tiny town of Fargo west of the Okefenokee Swamp. Officials said the wildfire, ignited Saturday by lightning, had grown so rapidly that after six days it already rivaled a fire that has scorched 116,480 acres, or 182 square miles, of southeastern Georgia forest and swamps since April 16 -- the state’s largest wildfire on record.