The smoke from the Pagami Creek fire has been causing breathing difficulties and concern among North Shore residents. The storm front that blew through the county on Monday, September 12 brought dark, smoky skies and dropped ash-filled rain. However, it also made for a scenic sunset. Sandy Updyke took this photo in Hovland at 6:30 p.m.
It is a record that no one in Minnesota wanted to break. The Pagami Creek fire, which originated in the Ely area on August 18 and has plagued the North Shore with smoke for several weeks, is close to becoming the largest wildfire in Minnesota’s history, equaling or surpassing the devastating 1918 Cloquet fire. At press time, the wildfire, started by a lightning strike, has grown to 100,000 acres and has caused cautionary evacuations of homes in Lake County and closures of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) entry points and campsites throughout the Superior National Forest in Lake and Cook County.
From small fire to inferno
When the fire began, U.S. Forest Service Superior National Forest fire management specialists conducted risk assessments and determined that letting the fire burn would provide resource management benefits such as preparing seed beds for pine regeneration and decreasing fuels for future wildfires. Early news releases about the fire said as the fire burned to the south it was reaching older burned areas. The Forest Service predicted that those earlier burns would function like fuel breaks and decrease the likelihood of the fire moving further south.
On September 10, as a precautionary measure the first BWCAW closures were announced, for Lakes Two and Three in the Ely area. On September 11, due to the warm, dry conditions, the Pagami Creek fire had grown to 4,500 acres and more BWCAW portage and waterway closures were announced in the Ely and Isabella areas.
The weather and the news worsened on the morning of September 12 when the Forest Service announced that strong north winds had driven a point of the fire south toward the Isabella River, increasing the size of the fire to 11,000 acres. Approximately 50 campers from the river and lake routes south of the fire and 70 campers along the eastern front of the fire were assisted out of the wilderness by public safety crews. The Forest Service predicted that the acreage of the fire would increase throughout the day and they were correct.
Providing an update on September 13, U.S. Forest Service Superior National Forest Spokesperson Lisa Radosevich- Craig said on September 12 the fire became a plume-driven event and a “finger of the Pagami Creeek fire” made an “unprecedented 16 mile run to the east.” At the end of the day, the fire had reached an estimated acrage of “in excess of 60,000,” however an accurate assessment was difficult due to the heavy smoke
As a precaution on September 13, Lake County residents were evacuated from 36 properties along the Cramer Road and Wanless Road. In addition, all BWCAW campsites and entry points were ordered closed on September 13, except for a few sites in the Ely area and at Brule, Seagull and Saganaga in Cook County. A number of roads were also closed as a precaution. See list below.
Questions from the public
However, depending on weather and fire behavior, those restrictions could change at any time, which was stressed at a public meeting at the Gunflint Ranger Station on Tuesday, September 13. Approximately 40 people gathered in the Gunflint District conference room to hear what was happening with the Pagami Creek fire. Other public meetings were held on September 14 at the Poplar Lake Fire Hall and the Schroeder Town Hall, also well attended by concerned citizens.
At the September 13 meeting at the Gunflint Ranger Station, Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk said the public information meetings were scheduled because it was important to get together to offer information to citizens. “There is a lot of smoke and a lot of rumors,” he said.
Falk said no evacuation orders had been issued in Cook County and in his perspective, the risk to Cook County was low. “But that could change at any moment,” he said, acknowledging how rapidly the fire had grown that day. “To prepare we have cancelled all holidays and days off for the deputies. As you know, we got a lot of lightning the other day. We just want to be prepared.”
Falk said deputies are patrolling the east and west ends of the county as well as up the Gunflint Trail—in addition to the regularly scheduled patrols. “We want to be proactive and that is why we are having these meetings,” said Falk.
Superior National Forest Fire Management Officer Patty Johnson said the Forest Service had called in a “type 2” team, to help fight the Pagami Fire, but also to ensure that no new fire starts gained ground. She said in addition to the Beaver aircraft assigned to Superior National Forest, there are three helicopters at Cook County Airport. The good news, said Johnson, was that some precipitation had fallen. “Because of the rain, there were no new starts. However, we need significant rainfall before we don’t have to worry about additonal starts,” she told the crowd.
The decision not to suppress the fire in its early days was questioned by several people at the meeting. Mary Petz of Hovland noted that all the smoke from the fire was a hazard—to people’s health and to the local economy. “I understand that the Forest Service has a policy not to bombard a fire right away, but we are now spending way more on this fire than if it had been suppressed right away,” said Petz.
Dave Williams of Grand Marais, whose outfitting business lost a building in the Ham Lake fire in 2007, echoed Petz’s question and he asked what the Forest Service was doing now to halt the fire’s advance toward another property he owns. “This concept of ‘letting it burn’ can’t continue,” he said.
Johnson said the Forest Service does a lot of modeling, trying to ascertain the best way to handle a fire for resource benefits. “When this fire first started, fuels were judged to be average. We look at historic fire weather and all of the models showed a less than one percent chance of having this type of fire event.
“The weather we’ve been getting has been anomaly weather. Not that we don’t get dry or windy weather, but multiple days of this is an anomaly,” said Johnson.
Connie Cummings, acting Gunflint District Ranger in absence of Dennis Neitzke who was temporarily working on the East Coast, said, “I’m sure we’ll be asking ourselves a lot of questions about this. This situation is similar to when we prepare for a prescribed fire. We take a risks assessment and look at how reducing fuels could reduce future risks. I agree, we felt the risk was fairly low at the time, based on weather conditions.”
Williams also questioned the Forest Service’s timber harvest procedure. “There haven’t been any logging sales that could have broken this up; that could have been used for fuel reduction.”
Johnson said the Forest Service had been conducting fuels reduction vegetation management projects, including a recent one in the Tait Lake area in Lutsen. “But there are tradeoffs. Some people don’t want to see logging around the Boundary Waters. Some people don’t want to see logging around The Grade,” said Johnson.
Commissioner Jim Johnson asked if the Forest Service owns a CL-215 firefighting aircraft and if it could be assigned to Superior National Forest. “It’s a matter of public safety,” he said.
Cummings said there are CL-215s in the region and noted that it is a “cost factor.” She said, “It’s more efficient to share with the State of Minnesota. There are always tradeoffs.”
Assistant Gunflint Ranger and Recreation Management Specialist Steve Schug said, “We do have a fleet of three Beaver DeHavillands that do our regular patrol. They have been on Superior National Forest for 50 years.”
Schug also answered what he said had been his most-asked question of the day—why was the closure area so large? Schug said the Forest Service just does not have the staff to patrol all of the Boundary Waters portages, waterways and dispersed campsites outside the wilderness, such as 4 Mile, Tuohy, Whitefish, Wilson and Hogback lakes. “It used to be kind of quiet in the Boundary Waters in September, but word has gotten out about our nicer fall weather. As you might imagine, it would be difficult to manage public safety with people spread all over the BWCA,” he said.
The last speaker at the Grand Marais public meeting was Mike Aultman who explained what it meant to have a “type 2” team on a fire. He said there are 24 people on each type 2 team, with members from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Divison of Emergency Management. He said the type 2 team works with the local Forest Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He said the type 2 team’s job is to assist the local groups manage resources. He added that he and members of the current team were familiar with the North Shore. He said current team members had helped out during the Sag Corridor, Alpine, Cavity, and Ham Lake fires.
Kay Grindland of Lutsen asked, “If the fire does come near homes, do you change how you fight the fire?”
Aultman said yes, outside of the wilderness, equipment such as bulldozers and fire engines are used in addition to aircraft.
At press time, there were 425 people assigned to the fire, with crews patrolling lines and monitoring for hot spots. Containment efforts were under way outside the wilderness on the southern perimeter. There are seven helicopters, including four National Guard Black Hawk helicopters and eight fixed-wing aircraft on the fire.
Forest Service Spokesperson Rebecca Manlove said the rain and cooler weather on Wednesday, September 14 helped slow the spread of the fire, but she said it was far from contained. “We’re happy with the containment efforts, but firefighters are very conservative in predicting containment. But there is very good work on the line,” said Manlove.
Affected Area*
All BWCAW campsites
closed except:
. Entry points along the Echo
Trail
. No. 25 – Moose Lake Chain
. No. 26 – Wood Lake
. No. 24 – Fall Lake
. Trout Lake Section
. No. 42 – Brule only
. No. 54A – Seagull only
. No. 55A – Saganaga only
. Vento section
Road closures
. All roads north of Highway
1 from FR 1468 east to
Isabella
. Wanless Road (FR 172) east
to Cramer/Lake County 7
. Cramer/Lake County 7
north to FR 354
. FR 354 north to BWCAW
boundary at Kawishiwi Lake
*As of September 14, 2011
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