Tuesday, May 15, 2007



Here's the latest map. Click on it to make it bigger and you should be able to see some more detail.
They're calling it 20% contained but that's all in the US so it's really 50% on our side of the border. They're saying they'll have it fully contained by this weekend.
They've gotten more rain than was expected and the wind has been cooperative as well. They're actually talking about sending some of the firefighters home and others to help on the Canadian side.
Lightning from one of the thunderstorms started two fires near Two Harbors. It doesn't sound like they're too concerned about those but it's scary to think about lightning starting more fires in the area.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

OK, so here are some thoughts about the fire.
Thursday gets the award for worst day so far. The fire grew from 22,000 acres to ~55,000. It was hot, dry and windy. Most of that expansion was in Canada, across the north side of Gunflint lake. It traveled around 13 miles that day and was advancing at more than 1 mph for much of the day. One firefighting official said 80% of the airborne embers blowing ahead of the fire were starting their own fires. Not sure how scientific that is but it's interesting.
Friday morning when I got to work and opened the car door i could smell smoke. I thought that smells like a fire, I wonder if it could be from the fire? Then I decided that was impossible. Later that afternoon the NPR weather guy was saying that the fire was "smellable" all over this part of the state and over in Eau Claire Wisconsin as well. We're ~250 miles away from where the fire is.
All BWCA entry points from Sawbill east to the end of the Gunflint trail are closed.
The fire is about 15 miles from Sawbill and from our property. Another bad day like last Thursday could put the fire very close to either location. The general trend seems to be for it to expand to the north and east, if that trend holds up it won't get significantly closer to either of us.
Since Thursday the weather has been relatively cooperative albeit without any rain. Tonight there is an 80% chance of scattered thundershowers, hopefully it'll be heavy on the showers and light on the thunder. It's dry enough up there that lightening could start a lot of other fires.
There are close to 700 people fighting the fire, that number has been going up by about 100 a day for the past several days.
Containment is now 15%, not good but much better than the 5% they were announcing all last week. I think if they get some rain tonight the percentage could jump up quickly.
There have been 133 structures destroyed, 61 residences and 17 businesses, the rest were "outbuildings".
It seems like every time they talk to a firefighter on the radio they talk about these rooftop sprinkler systems that lots of people up there have. Apparently they're very effective, here's a photo I found of one in action:

Here's another interesting shot I found:

I can't think of much else to write now.
I'm posting this so people can get an idea of where the fire is right now. I'll put up some more detail and statistics about it soon but I wanted to get the map up now.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Hola amigos. I know it's been a while since I've blogged at you...
So Sandy and I were up at the lake last weekend for our first visit of the Spring.
We got a bunch of stuff done for such a short visit.
We removed all the fiberglass insulation from the "house" and 25% of the stuff under the house. Sandy relocated a giant brush pile to a location where we can burn it next winter. Here's where the brush used to be:

Everything in front of the rocks was piled about 5 feet deep with brush and rotten logs and stumps.
I spent most of the day Saturday building a little enclosure under the deck to keep the generator in. It's insulated to keep in as much of the noise as possible. The problem is it retains all the heat and exhaust as well, so I need to figure out a way to ventilate it without letting all the sound out.
Saturday evening I noticed that there was a mature Aspen tree leaning toward the cabin.

It's the big tree on the right that looks like it's falling over.
Left to it's own devices this tree will eventually fall and hit our cabin. It couldn't be better aimed if someone had planned it. Given the size and positioning of the tree and the relative quality of our cabin I'm pretty sure this would make my Dad's tree woes look like nothing. This thing would oblierate our cabin.
So last night Sandy called and introduced herself to our neighbors to the West, the tree is on their property. We explained the situation and Betsy (the neighbor) said she was familar with the tree in question and had been hoping that it would fall and smash the house on our lot. We assured her that we intend to tear the house down this Summer but wanted to keep the cabin and she gladly agreed that we should cut the tree down.
So now I'm in the market for a chainsaw.
Lastly here's a picture of the burn pile Sandy built.

The truck is a rental and the bags in the back of it are full of fiberglass from the house. We brought them back here and are throwing them out one or two at a time.
As we were driving down the Gunflint we passed a firetruck headed north and then later a convoy of about 6 forest service pickups with fire crews. Closer to Duluth we heard on the radio that there was a fire burning near Ham lake on the East border of the BWCA. It was really windy, warm and dry all weekend so we were pretty sure this wasn't going to be an easy fire to deal with.
It started on Saturday and spread rapidly with the wind to the North West, that was taking it toward the Cavity Lake fire which I wrote about a lot last Fall. That would have been good because it would have run out of fuel, but Monday the wind turned to the East and the long fireline from the day before started moving straight East toward the Gunflint trail.
As it stands now it's burned over 17,000 acres and between 30 and 40 buildings have been destroyed many of them houses or cabins. It's enveloped the entire north end of the Gunflint trail and has now spread across the border into Canada.
It's about 20 miles from our property so there's no imminent danger for us although the conditions are so bad that we could have other serious fires in the area if it stays dry this Spring and Summer.