Forest Service plans to fight fire in popular area of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: And our top story, crews are preparing to go in and put down a wildfire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Forest Service noticed smoke from a survey plane last night, the same day the agency announced a campfire ban in the wilderness area because of tinder-dry conditions. Earlier this morning, the fire was estimated to stretch about 30 acres. And it's located a few miles from the Gunflint Trail. Joe Friedrichs is the news director at WTIP North Shore Community Radio in Grand Marais, which is about 40 miles away. Hey. Joe. How are you?

JOE FRIEDRICHS: Hello, Cathy. I'm doing just fine. How are you?

CATHY WURZER: Good to hear your voice again, my friend. So I know you heard the update from the Forest Service after the aerial survey this morning. What did they say?

JOE FRIEDRICHS: Well, just got an update about 15 minutes ago. And as of now, it's still estimated, the fire known as the Spice Lake Fire, to be about 30 acres in size. So it doesn't look like it's grown a whole lot this morning from when we got that first report at about 11:00 PM last night. So it's not out of control, by any means, as far as its growth and how fast it's growing. So still 30 acres is the language the Forest Service is using right now.

It is creeping and smoldering. That's what they're noticing this morning. The biggest news right now is that they're bringing in some aircraft, two airplanes that's scheduled to drop water-- could be even right now while we're speaking-- and one helicopter. They were scheduled to arrive late this morning and will be dropping water throughout the afternoon on the fire.

CATHY WURZER: What areas of the Boundary Waters are closed to the public?

JOE FRIEDRICHS: Well, that's the next step. That's what we're waiting for. And we should find that out within the next several hours. Upper management, the Forest Service here on Superior National Forest, are making that determination right now. It looks like, Cathy, it's going to be a large area. And that's the language the Forest Service is using. No specifics yet, but the closure area could be large. That's what they're saying.

Now, when we're talking about the Boundary Waters, that could mean all kinds of things. And maybe that's relative to who thinks it's large and isn't, but this area down toward the end of the Gunflint Trail. It could stretch to the end of the Gunflint. We're going to wait and see. I don't even want to speculate because I don't know anything. And the Forest Service is determining that right now.

CATHY WURZER: OK. And so, of course, if they close it down, I would presume that they'd try to go in and try to find some of the campers and the canoeists that are there and tell them to get out, right?

JOE FRIEDRICHS: Right. And they've already done some of that. They did that yesterday, on Tuesday. They landed a float plane on Ogishkemuncie Lake, which is right in the center of where this is. It's in between Spice Lake and Ogish, is what we call it here locally, typically, in the Boundary Waters scene and so forth. But Ogishkemuncie is the name of that lake. And over toward Knife Lake, in that area, and Kekekabic.

So it's east of Knife Lake, which is a very, very popular lake, and Kekekabic. All that area is up in question here as far as how far will this closure go. And then when you want to reach out a little further, you start talking about Seagull Lake and that area. So this is a very, very popular area in the Boundary Waters.

CATHY WURZER: Now, it's dry up there. That's for certain. I mean, if you go to Duluth, all the way up the shore, you can just see it. And the drought monitor last week says that large sections of the state are abnormally dry, including your section of the state. So do fire officials say this could be the start of a potentially big fire season up there?

JOE FRIEDRICHS: Right, that's the concern. And that's why the campfire ban went into effect this morning, on Wednesday. They announced it yesterday. The Forest Service put a campfire ban across Superior National Forest, which includes all of the Boundary Waters. So you can no longer have a campfire at any campsite in the BWCA and most dispersed camp sites across Superior National Forest, which is this massive area here in northeastern Minnesota.

So there's already concern about fire danger and just the conditions. A campfire ban goes into effect. And then it was just last night when we get this announcement, oh, we've already got a fire burning. And because it's in between Spice Lake and Ogishkemuncie Lake, there's no determination yet if it was started from a campfire or how exactly it got started. That we're waiting for as well.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Because I know you didn't have any storms up there last night, at least I didn't think he did. Yeah.

JOE FRIEDRICHS: No, yeah, we have not. Yesterday, I mean, it was mostly clear skies, other than the smoke, which is now quite prevalent here today. I mean, it sounds like it is across the state. But definitely up here, you woke up to smoky skies.

And I asked the Forest Service this morning, Tim Engrav, the public information officer who we're communicating with, was some of this smoke also from this wildfire that's burning in the Boundary Waters? And maybe if you're down at the end of the Gunflint, it might be. Or if you're in the Boundary Waters, you're going to see some of that smoke. But primarily, we're getting the same Canadian wildfire that most of Minnesota is today.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, it's pretty thick. Joe, I appreciate your time, as always, Thank you so much.

JOE FRIEDRICHS: You got it, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: See you later. Joe Friedrichs is the news director of WTIP North Shore Community Radio, based in Grand Marais.