Northern Minnesota wildfire response: ‘This is when you find out what kind of community you live in’

AULT TOWNSHIP, MINN. – Dee Sibben and her husband, Dave, have owned a small second home in a nearby township for more than two decades. For the Fridley residents, the North Woods community is where they escape year-round.

They’ve now learned from their neighbors that all that remains amid the rubble of their property is a chimney.

“We lost everything,” she said, but “we lost stuff. We have friends who are now homeless.”

The Camp House fire was detected about 1 p.m. Sunday north of Brimson and by late Tuesday morning had grown to 12,000 acres with 80 responders working to suppress it — ranging from local to federal agencies. Dozens were asked to evacuate the area that includes family homes and cabins. Gov. Tim Walz authorized the National Guard to provide assistance.

Sibben said they plan to rebuild what was a 100-year-old home. Through tears, she said the people of the Brimson area are like family.

“My heart breaks for them,’' she said.

At least 100 structures have been affected, Ryan Williams of the Minnesota Incident Command System said during a news conference just before noon Tuesday at the Two Harbors Fire Department. Later Tuesday, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said the number had risen to 140 structures.

In a remote forested area of the Superior National Forest about 14 miles from Hoyt Lakes, the Jenkins Creek fire had grown to 6,800 acres by Tuesday afternoon. Discovered Monday, the fire has moved quickly through the mixed boreal forest and grass, a landscape officials describe as dry and in many places defoliated, having been “heavily impacted by spruce budworm.”

Hugo’s Bar in Rollins Corner near the Camp House fire was ground zero for residents and emergency services to gather Tuesday. Free food, bottles of water and coffee was offered, and a septic service showed up to pump the bar‘s system for free.

“This is when you find out what kind of community you live in,” said bar owner Jesse Willemarck.

At lunchtime, neighbors discussed property loss, how they were taking care of each other and how the fire started.

The conditions are such that “we’re sitting in the middle of a bonfire, ready to go,” said Dave Clark, who lives just south of the fire perimeter.

A drive down a closed-off portion of Hwy. 44 showed charred ditches and torched conifers, smoke rising where hot spots smoldered.

Helicopters took turns dipping into Indian Lake, sucking up water with a straw-like apparatus to pour onto the nearby blaze.

Some at Hugo’s who had lost homes said it was too soon to talk.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but there was some anger over how the fire is believed to have likely started: people with little experience in the North Woods ignoring red-flag warnings, they said.

Hugo’s Bar is in an evacuation zone, and Willemarck lives there with his wife. He likened his place to the band on the Titanic, continuing to play.

The fire moved indiscriminately, he said, citing one woman’s property that burned to the ground while a nearby place nestled among pines still stands.

“I don’t understand forest fires,” he said. But there was hope that fire, which is good for forests, will leave a healthier landscape in its wake.

There is so much spruce budworm damage that “this area is begging” for a fire, Willemarck said.

Neighbors continue to drop off donations at Hugo’s.

Teri Thomey stopped in to the Two Harbors Public Library. She had been to the home she and her husband lived in part-time for the past 25 years to collect photographs and clothes.

“We aren’t sure what‘s going to happen,” she said.

She worried about her parents, who built a house on Bassett Lake 60 years ago. “The House that Jack Built,” they call it. They moved into a motel for the time being.

“It‘s their whole life,” Thomey said.

On Tuesday, the fire was north of Indian Lake, south of Town Line Road and had recently reached Murphy Lake to the east.

With another hot, dry and windy day ahead, firefighters’ main priority is protecting infrastructure and private property, in addition to fire safety, Williams said.

Spot fires have been the biggest issue — which occur when embers kick up flames beyond the initial burn area.

“There‘s a heavy dead component due to budworm,” Williams said, adding that it can be like Whac-a-Mole for firefighters. “There‘s a lot of receptive fuels everywhere. Couple that with challenging winds … the lake effect has been influencing the fire, causing issues for firefighters” as they try to suppress it.

“We’re really optimistic about the moisture coming later this week,” Williams said. “Ideally, we’ll get some pretty good precipitation that will bring some relief.

Rain is forecast starting Wednesday and continuing through Saturday.

“I don’t know if it will put the fire out, but it‘ll definitely give the first responders an opportunity to make really good progress.”

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