The house at 223 Fireweed Lane on Devil Track was an inferno by the time firefighters and equipment from six different fire departments arrived and set up water drop tanks and hoses. Firefighters frantically worked to save the house at 225 Fireweed Lane. The fire was extinguished after five hours, however it is likely that the building is a total loss.
Cook County Law Enforcement received an emergency call from Devil Track Landing at 5:17 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 reporting a house fire on Fireweed Lane. When Maple Hill and Grand Marais fire departments arrived on the scene at 5:34 p.m. and 5:39 p.m. the house was fully engulfed and flames were spreading to the soffit of the house next door.
The caller who reported the blaze was Tony Everson, another Devil Track Lake resident. Everson said he had taken his motorcycle out for a drive. He passed Fireweed Lane to go to the Devil Track General Store and saw nothing amiss. When he headed home a few minutes later, he saw flames coming out of the roof of the house. Everson told the Cook County News-Herald, “I was just riding by on my Harley and I saw the flames—they were about 60 feet high!”
Everson said he wasn’t able to get near the house at 223 Fireweed Lane, but he could open the door of 225 Fireweed Lane to call out to see if anyone was inside. When he confirmed that the house was vacant, he went into Devil Track Landing to call 911. Everson said he told Cook County Law Enforcement to “send everyone!”
As they set up water drop tanks and hoses and assessed the scene, the Maple Hill and Grand Marais fire departments called for mutual aid. With only a handful of firefighters, Cook County Sheriff ‘s Deputies were pressed into service manning hoses until backup from Lutsen, Tofte, Colvill, and Hovland fire departments arrived. A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources firefighting crew also responded to assist, batting down spot fires that sprang up around the roaring house fire, endangering yet another home at 221 Fireweed Lane.
As the 223 Fireweed Lane home crumbled, firefighters concentrated on 225 Fireweed Lane, hosing down the roof and spraying inside the house from the entry. Firefighters used ladders to climb the steep-pitched roof to cut a hole in the roof, pulling hose up to douse the fire that had spread through the upper level of the home. Firefighters attacked the fire from inside and out, from the ground and from the roof. Cook County Ambulance stood by, keeping firefighters hydrated and ensuring they were not overcome by heat or smoke.
Firefighters were eventually able to knock the fire down and when the last firefighters were cleared from the scene at about 11:30 p.m., the house was still standing, but with extensive damage. It is likely the house is a total loss.
Neither property owner was in Cook County when the fire broke out. Ron Thorud, owner of 223 Fireweed Lane where the fire originated, lives in Savage, Minnesota.
Timothy and Marie Russell, owners of 225 Fireweed Lane, live in Campbell, California.
At press time the cause of the fire was undetermined.
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