|
05/20/2025 12:15PM |
Minnesota filmmaker Keri Pickett stands near her cabin Sunday, May 18, 2025, after wildfires moved through and destroyed the northeast Minnesota residence.Contributed / Keri Pickett
Fighting back tears, documentary filmmaker Keri Pickett sifted through the rubble of what remained of her northeastern Minnesota cabin Sunday after the Camp House fire swept through the area earlier in the week.
“Everything at the ground level, all the metal roofing is on top of a pile of just absolute destruction,” she said. “Everything is kind of melted together and a huge jumble, and it just looks like an ancient site, like it’s been here for a million years like this.”
Plates sit melted together, while other kitchen supplies lay in the soot Sunday, May 18, 2025, after wildfires burned down Keri Pickett’s cabin.Contributed / Keri Pickett
Pickett’s cabin, purchased through an inheritance after her aunt’s death, was only about a half-mile from the epicenter of the blaze. The only things that were spared were a cast-iron pan and, surprisingly, a recently built sauna.
“It was saved because I had a huge amount of chopped firewood right behind it, and the fire came towards the sauna, but then that hot, hot fire must have stopped it from advancing. It created a fire break,” she said. “Even though the back side of the sauna, the wiring is melted, and the wood is charred, the sauna looks totally usable.”
But the sauna was locked when the fire arrived, and the key was in the cabin at the time. Pickett was searching through what was left to find it so she could see the extent of the fire’s damage to the interior.
|
05/12/2025 06:12AM |
Skibo three-day history
|
05/12/2025 08:17AM |
A wildfire has burned an estimated 750 acres in northern Minnesota on Sunday.
The fire is burning near Brimson, Minn. in the Superior National Forest, about 35 miles north of Duluth.
Several dozen people have been evacuated amid the fire battle.
|
05/12/2025 08:14AM |
gravelroad: "Relative humidity started low yesterday and fell off the table. Here’s the three-day history at Skibo, which is probably the nearest reporting station:
Skibo three-day history "
Something is amiss with the Skibo RAWS.
There cannot be a RH of 1 percent last night or the daytime in N MN, we are not the desert.
|
05/15/2025 05:27PM |
brp: "Current radar looking good for soaking over the burning area."
Definitely good to get the rain! Just hope those cells aren't rotating, no need for tornadoes on top of wild fires.
|
05/15/2025 10:55PM |
My group is going in at Sawbill this Saturday.
|
05/14/2025 09:10AM |
LindenTree: "OgimaaBines: "Does anyone know how the Camphouse fire started?"
Not official yet, but a St Louis county deputy stated that it is believed to be from a campfire.
"
Local chatter is two younger guys that had recently bought property on the corner there, were clearing land and brush and were burning the brush. There's pictures of them on FB, as people were concerned when they saw it. It got away from them and they were there an onsite when it happened.
Fire is currently 15,000 acres.
Unfortunate for all involved. We got the pre-evac notice yesterday afternoon. Current fire boundary is 6 miles from our place over at Marble. I don't think it gets over there, based on the wind, but it is expanding that direction.
|
05/14/2025 05:43PM |
Speckled: "We got the pre-evac notice yesterday afternoon. Current fire boundary is 6 miles from our place over at Marble. I don't think it gets over there, based on the wind, but it is expanding that direction."
I know a couple different landowners in that area. I had to remind family members about our friend on the Langley River.
I'm hoping for a wet and dreary stretch of weather.
|
05/14/2025 10:50PM |
|
05/16/2025 12:33AM |
|
05/15/2025 09:02AM |
Gov. Tim Walz authorized the deployment of the Minnesota National Guard on Monday and spoke during a press conference Tuesday to urge residents to cooperate with evacuation orders.
“I know these are difficult decisions to make,” Walz said. “It’s not only for your own safety, it’s for the firefighters’ safety, because protecting these buildings and lives puts them at risk.”
The U.S. Forest Service deployed additional helicopters, planes, and personnel, as the blaze is currently the largest wildfire burning in the U.S. Crews from as far away as Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Colorado, and Ontario arrived to support local and state responders.
Closures and evacuations
|
05/15/2025 09:55AM |
|
05/14/2025 10:47PM |
|
05/14/2025 10:52PM |
Small wonder. As an aviation officer for the U.S. Forest Service, the past four days of battling a pair of fast-spreading fires from the Ely Air Attack Base have been a bit of a blur.
Firefighting plane lands
A CL215-T firefighting plane lands at the Ely Air Attack Base on Wednesday.Wyatt Buckner / Duluth Media Group
A couple De Havilland CL-215T scooper planes had just hit the tarmac Wednesday afternoon, and crews quickly went to work preparing the valuable aircraft for their next sorties on the flames.
Trees burning
RELATED: Evacuation ordered for Munger Shaw Fire
Sheriff Gordon Ramsay said the fires show no sign of slowing.
6h ago
2
The airplanes arrived by way of Bozeman, Montana, and would be joined Thursday by another duo from Spokane, Washington.
With more than 140 homes already lost to the forest fires and more than 35,000 acres of land already blackened, it may seem difficult to imagine anyone uncovering a silver lining amid the ashes.
|
05/16/2025 08:16AM |
Scrambled: "Anybody aware of the impact the storms had on the fires?
My group is going in at Sawbill this Saturday."
I know Brimson got decent rain. Judging from the forecast, cool weather is going to be a bigger factor than forest fires.
|
05/16/2025 09:02AM |
Scrambled: "Anybody aware of the impact the storms had on the fires?
My group is going in at Sawbill this Saturday."
Bring warm clothes.
|
05/16/2025 09:01AM |
I don’t know much about forest fires, but it seems like that would pretty much end the immediate fire concerns if it materializes.
|
05/16/2025 08:49PM |
https://www.instagram.com/sawbillcanoeoutfitters/
Scrambled: "Anybody aware of the impact the storms had on the fires?
My group is going in at Sawbill this Saturday."
|
05/15/2025 08:40AM |
Pinetree: "Mocha: "Surprising Canada hasn’t sent some help yet"
There has been Canadian water bombers from day one I think"
Canadians have their own problems. There's major fires in eastern Manitoba around Lac du Bonnet. I think the entire Nopiming provincial park burned. This is the area south of Wallace lake.
|
05/15/2025 05:24PM |
|
05/15/2025 05:28PM |
brp: "Current radar looking good for soaking over the burning area.
Hope
|
05/11/2025 05:37PM |
“Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Superior National Forest firefighters are on site. The public is asked to avoid the area for their own safety and the safety of fire personnel. No drones allowed near the area.“
|
05/11/2025 05:30PM |
200-acre wildfire burning near Brimson, prompting evacuations
The sheriff's office said "a number of cabins, garages and other structures have been affected," but no injuries were reported as of late Sunday afternoon.
Fire truck
BRIMSON — A 200-acre wildfire near Brimson on Sunday prompted evacuations for "several dozen residents," the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office said.
The sheriff's office said a "rapidly spreading grass/wildfire" was reported at 1:15 p.m. at the 2200 block of Highway 44 in Ault Township.
87 degrees F. and 32MPH winds now.
|
05/11/2025 10:02PM |
command center
|
05/12/2025 11:33AM |
|
05/15/2025 04:47AM |
|
05/11/2025 09:17PM |
|
05/11/2025 08:28PM |
|
05/12/2025 10:21AM |
|
05/12/2025 02:40PM |
|
05/12/2025 06:30PM |
I am worried with all the dead Balsams.
The two largest fires are heading NNE so will miss my property, but hopefully won't burn the Langley River/Kane Lake area where both my sister and I know friends.
|
05/13/2025 12:43AM |
OgimaaBines: "Does anyone know how the Camphouse fire started?"
Not official yet, but a St Louis county deputy stated that it is believed to be from a campfire.
|
05/12/2025 06:07PM |
Low humidity and high winds caused a wildfire burning near Brimson to jump in size Monday. Meanwhile, a new, separate wildfire spread a few miles to the northeast.
The Camp House Fire, which ignited Sunday afternoon, grew to 1,250 acres by mid-morning Monday, up from 750 acres the evening before, Superior National Forest spokesperson Christine Kolinski said.
An estimated three cabins were destroyed and over 50 residences evacuated in the Camp House Fire, the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office reported Monday afternoon.
It also jumped highway #44 this afternoon.
|
05/12/2025 02:41PM |
Camp House Fire.C02.jpg
Smoke rises from the Camp House Fire above the treeline near County Highway 44 on Monday.Wyatt Buckner / Duluth Media Group
The Camp House Fire grew from 200 acres Sunday evening to approximately 750 acres overnight. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Several dozen residents were evacuated Sunday evening. Displaced residents should plan to remain evacuated Monday night, the sheriff's office said in the news release. The northern evacuation line is Little Creek Road, the eastern line is County Road 151; the southern line is Camp House Road; and the western line is County Highway 44.
Jeff Conklin, who lives on Elo Road, was on a side-by-side ride with friends Sunday when he started to hear about the fire. When he got closer to home, he found his was closed.But his dogs, Queeny, an 11-year-old Presa Canario, and Thor, a 10-year-old Presa Canario and lab mix, were back at the house.
He was allowed to quickly retrieve the dogs and get out, but said he would have gone in if they had tried to stop him
“They (Queen and Thor) are old,” Conklin said. “They don’t deserve to die of smoke inhalation.”
Conklin, who uses a wheelchair, spent the night in his vehicle parked outside Hugo’s Bar in Brimson, which is serving as a staging area for first responders and unofficial gathering place for evacuees.
Man looks at fire smoke
Jeff Conklin looks at the plume of smoke rising above the tree line from the Camp House Fire near Hugo's Bar in Brimson on Monday.Wyatt Buckner / Duluth Media Group
So far, he thinks the fire spared his home.
Greg Ruberg, of Two Harbors, who was sitting at the bar snacking on popcorn just before noon Monday, said he just got back from checking on his cabin near George Lake.
While the fire burned around the property, his cabin and four other structures were unharmed.
“We had a really large fire perimeter because of all the dead balsam, so we worked on it for the last year and half, cleaning up every dead tree, all the brush,” Ruberg said. “And it burned exactly around the perimeter of our yard.”
At least two of his neighbors, however, were among those who lost their cabins.
In addition to reducing fuels, Ruberg also credited the work of aerial crews dropping water on and around his property and first responders who went in and checked on his property and let him know it was safe.
“They were doing everything they could to save it,” Ruberg said.
Camp House Fire.C07.jpg
A Canadair CL-415 SuperScooper refills its water tank on Cadotte Lake to battle the
|
05/12/2025 03:11PM |
|
05/12/2025 03:41PM |
WDIO story on second fire
|
05/12/2025 11:07PM |
|
05/12/2025 06:05PM |
Jumped highway #44.
1250
|
05/12/2025 10:33PM |
|
05/15/2025 06:26PM |
pleflar: "brp: "Current radar looking good for soaking over the burning area.
Definitely good to get the rain! Just hope those cells aren't rotating, no need for tornadoes on top of wild fires."
We were in a tornado warning here in the cities for a bit, had a little bit of rotation. Thankfully none formed from what I heard.
|
05/15/2025 07:10AM |
Mocha: "Surprising Canada hasn’t sent some help yet"
There has been Canadian water bombers from day one I think
|
05/15/2025 08:26AM |
Speckled: "LindenTree: "OgimaaBines: "Does anyone know how the Camphouse fire started?"
Not official yet, but a St Louis county deputy stated that it is believed to be from a campfire.
"
Local chatter is two younger guys that had recently bought property on the corner there, were clearing land and brush and were burning the brush. There's pictures of them on FB, as people were concerned when they saw it. It got away from them and they were there an onsite when it happened.
"
can you share a link to these pics on facebook?
|
05/16/2025 07:02AM |
Here is a link that stays up to date.
|
05/20/2025 06:43AM |
Active radar
Brimson Mn
|
05/20/2025 06:18AM |
Remember, any heat source could spark a wildfire in these conditions!
??Don’t burn and check any recent burning for lingering heat.
??Campfires are strongly discouraged.
??Use caution with any outdoor activity that creates heat or sparks.
|
05/20/2025 08:46AM |
Pinetree: "The rain today is very heavy just to the west of the fires-the front can't seem to get where the fires are present."
FYI, there is a pin in your link that I am assuming is your location since its not where the fires are located. Just letting you know if you want to edit the post.
|
05/20/2025 11:29AM |
YaMarVa: "Pinetree: "The rain today is very heavy just to the west of the fires-the front can't seem to get where the fires are present. my favorite radar weather "
FYI, there is a pin in your link that I am assuming is your location since its not where the fires are located. Just letting you know if you want to edit the post. "
Yes I absolutely know, thank you though.
It was just amazing how that high pressure was stopping the rain getting where it was needed. No rain forecast thru June 3rd now.
Changed it to Brimson Mn.
Thanks
|
05/21/2025 09:49AM |
Operations for today will include cutting hazard snags (fire-weakened trees from aerial water drops or burnt roots), reinforce the fire's perimeter, and continue putting water on the fire and cold trailing (inspecting for heat areas on the fire and putting out with tools and water, especially on the fire's perimeter). Total acres are 2.8 acres. Fire has been determined to be lightning caused by last week's storms.