By Chris Williams
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Residents of a small Minnesota town were braced for possible evacuation Tuesday after strong winds whipped a forest fire into a blaze that covered about 93 square miles in the northeastern part of the state.
The fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a lake-dotted region along the Minnesota-Canada border, was sending a plume of smoke and haze across the Upper Midwest, with reports of haze as far away as Illinois and northern Michigan.
The fire started Aug. 18 with a lighting strike 20 miles from Ely, but only began spreading quickly this week in windy, dry conditions. The fire raced 16 miles east in a single day from Monday to Tuesday.
“Nobody would have guessed it would be doubling and quadrupling in size,” said Jean Bergerson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center.
No structures have burned and no one has been hurt, Bergerson said. But 25 mph winds forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday were likely to spread the fire, dubbed the Pagami Creek fire for its point of origin, further. She predicted it would be days or weeks before the fire was under control.
The Boundary Waters is a wild region popular with canoe campers for its beauty. Several lakes and entry points into the wilderness were closed, and about 120 campers were evacuated from the fire zone earlier this week, some by Forest Service float planes.
About 36 residences on the eastern edge of the fire were evacuated Monday night.
The residents of Isabella, a small town of about 200, were told Monday night to keep their medicine, valuables and pets close by so they could also leave on short notice, she said.
Tom Person, co-owner of the Stony River Cafe in Isabella, said he had been there 29 years and this was the closest a forest fire had gotten to town. He said it looked like a huge white thunderhead rising out of the woods about 10 miles from town.
“It’s quite a sight,” Person said. “You can see it and smell it when the winds are right.”
The cafe was open Tuesday, but Person said he was prepared to go if the winds changed and sent the fire roaring back toward town. “That’s just common sense,” Person said.
About 200 firefighters were assigned to the fire on Tuesday and more were pouring into the area. Bergerson said the first of a group of about 50 elite firefighters were coming in from the Rocky Mountains and would probably take over on Thursday.
Gov. Mark Dayton announced Tuesday that he was sending in four Minnesota National Guard helicopters equipped with huge buckets for water drops to assist the firefighters.
Meanwhile, the Northland Chapter of the American Red Cross announced it was moving cots, blankets and food to the Community Center in Finland to accommodate evacuees.
With the winds calming somewhat, ground crews were patrolling the north side of the fire on Tuesday. Bergerson said stronger winds on Monday prevented attacking the fire on foot and made canoe travel difficult. Downdrafts from the fire were creating more than 3-foot waves on some lakes as it passed.
While the Pagami Creek fire has grown quickly, it remains far smaller than the 2007 Ham Lake fire, which burned 118 square miles in Minnesota and Canada and destroyed nearly 150 buildings worth more than $10 million. It was the most destructive fire in the state since 1918.
Sections of the BWCA remain open, but Bergerson recommended that campers call ahead as many entry points and lakes have been closed due to the fire.