Department of Natural Resources firefighters called in two CL 215 tanker planes to help fight a fire reported at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The fire occurred just past the end of the Haney Road, on the Cedar Pole Road, said Jon Handrick, DNR fire program forester in Littlefork.
The fire is suspected to have been caused by a saw used in logging hitting rocks causing a spark to ignite brush.
“Even sparks are starting fires now,” he said of the dry conditions.
The fire was contained to about 2.5 acres, said Handrick.
“We got a couple of foresters on the scene that morning, and they called for tankers and they came and saw they needed another,” he said.
The CL 215s scooped up water from Kabetogama and Pelican lakes to dump on the fire, said Handrick.
“That gave us enough time to get some hose stretched from a beaver pond to the fire and keep it in check,” he said. “The rain Tuesday night helped; we will still work on that fire for at least a few more days.”
The lack of rain during August has allowed area forests to dry out, allowing the fire in the first hours to burn deep into stumps.
A four-person conservation crew from southern Minnesota has been brought to the scene, said Handrick. “They were grubbing at it with hand tools and water from a hose lay we put in yesterday,” he told The Journal Wednesday. The crew will continue to work on the fire until the DNR is sure it is completely extinguished, Handrick said.
This is the first major wildland fire during August the local DNR has experienced, Handrick said.
“We’ve been on alert most of August,” he said. “This is the first fire we’ve really had in our main area. We had one down south of Crane Lake, and a few others, but this is first in our area.”
As more people begin to go into the area’s forests for bear, grouse and deer hunting, Handrick said more fires may occur.
If someone sees a fire, they should immediately call 911 and dispatchers will contact the DNR. He urged people not to let their guard down.
“The biggest thing is to be careful with any kind of fire, and certainly don’t leave any fire unattended,” he said. “It still looks green, but even that stuff is burning now.”
Rainfall Tuesday night and Thursday morning may have helped the dry conditions, but that could change quickly, he said.
“The rain makes us feel a little better while it’s raining, but another sunny and windy day and that would be gone and we’d be back to the way we were,” he said.
Littlefork measured only 1.25 of an inch of rainfall all August, with half of that inch measured Tuesday night, Handrick said. “We should be getting about one inch a week in August.”
