Rain gives crews a hand with BWCA blaze

08/09/2005

Richard Meryhew,
Star Tribune
August 10, 2005

A light drizzle gently soaked the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness today, aiding crews attempting to contain a fire that threatens the Gunflint Trail northwest of Grand Marais, Minn.

Gil Knight, an information officer assigned to a temporary fire command center not far from the fire scene, said the rain started about 5 a.m. and continued through mid morning.

Although it hasn’t been a heavy rain, he said, the drizzle was just enough to keep the flames in check and the fire from making a run toward the resorts and businesses along the Gunflint Trail, several miles away.

“It’s just a nice, steady drizzle, a little soaker,” Knight said. “So we’re just not expecting much fire activity today.”

A fire that started with a lightning strike during a July 30 storm has consumed about 3/4 of a square mile of forest between Alpine and Seagull lakes, Knight said.

Knight said today’s forecast for the area calls for perhaps as much as a tenth of an inch of rain, which should greatly help crews in their attempts to contain the wildfire.

“It looks pretty good right now,” Knight said this morning. “But we’re by no means finished with this fire.”

The rain has been steady enough, however, that the water scooping planes used to fight the fire in recent days have stopped making runs, at least for now.

“There’s no need for it right now,” Knight said.

Knight said the last of about 150 fire crew members arrived this morning and will head into the forest later today to continue the work of setting up pumps and a sprinkler system to soak a perimeter line around the fire in hopes of containing it.

Knight said the drizzle has knocked down the flames and smoke just enough to enable crews to fly over the area and get a better look at what spots they might want to hit hard today.

“This is all good,” Knight said. “Rain is a good thing. Things look pretty good right now.”

The forecast for today and tomorrow is favorable, too.

The forecast for today is for a high temperature of 77 with winds from the northwest at 10 miles an hour or less. Wednesday’s forecast is much the same, Knight said.