Emergency responders were paged to a grass fire at the Last Chance Gallery on Railroad Drive in Lutsen at 2:16 p.m. on Saturday, May 7. The caller said the fire was moving into the woods.
The fire was noticed at Lockport General Store across the highway and the owners ran over with fire extinguishers. Customers at Lockport joined them to see if they could help. The customers used water from the rain barrels at the gallery to help drench the smoldering grass.
The Lutsen and Tofte Fire Departments, Cook County Ambulance, Lutsen First Responders, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service fire divisions were all paged.
The Lutsen Fire Department was on scene by 2:25 p.m. and found the fire, about 10-feet by 50-feet, approaching a propane tank. Firefighters doused the flames and asked that the Tofte Fire Department, which was responding to provide mutual aid, standby as it appeared the Lutsen department had the fire under control.
At 2:30 p.m., Tofte was asked to stand-down. The page to the Cook County Ambulance was also cancelled, as were the DNR and Forest Service fire crews.
At 2:42 p.m., Lutsen Fire reported that the fire was out.
The fire started when sparks from a welder ignited dry grass outside the gallery’s shop area.
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