A
watchful eye has been on on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
since July 4, 1999, when over 400,000 acres of forest were
blown down. A fire broke out this weekend at Alpine
Lake, located just West of the end of the historic Gunflint
Trail and Sea Gull Lake. While this is definitely not
the first fire in the BWCA since the blowdown, the Alpine Lake
Fire may be grabbing more attention as it is in an area that
received some of the worst damage in the '99 blowdown.
Click
Here for the most recent update.
Alpine Fire Update (2005-08-08) Alpine Lake Fire Update
The Alpine Lake fire was flown with GPS this morning and is
485 acres.
Firefighting objectives continue to be: Firefighter safety
Visitor safety Protection of the 70+ facilities near Seagull,
Gull and the Saganaga Corridor Minimum Impact Suppression
Tools will be used (these are light on the land tactics
including, using natural barriers, hose lays to make wet line,
and geographic barriers) The Unified Command between the MN
Incident Command System and the Cook County Sheriff is working
great.
On Sunday, August 7, the three CL-215s made a total of 193
drops on the fire. That is over a quarter of a million gallons
of water in one day.
Approximately 16 campsites on five lakes have been closed;
they include sites on Grandpa, Seagull, Saganaga, Alpine and
Red Rock. The portage between Alpine and Seagull lakes is also
closed. Fire restrictions in the Blowdown area are being
planned for the end of the week.
There are about 80 firefighters on the fire with 20 more
firefighters in route.
The changing winds on the fire are a concern today, high
winds are also in this afternoon’s forecast.
There will be a public information meeting on Tuesday,
August 9 at 1:00pm at Blankenburg Landing.
There is no estimate of containment at this time.
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