Posted: 6/6/07
RC firefighters called to BWCA
 Each day the Rush City volunteers had to perform a weather check using a portable weather station. Chris Nelson (center right) takes readings while Noel Nessel (left), Adam Mossiman (center left), and Dave Schroeder Jr. (right) look on. In the distance and barely visible through the smoky haze is the opposite shoreline. |
By Patrick Tepoorten
For six days, five members of the Rush City Fire Department volunteered for some of the hardest duty there is - battling out-of-control forest fires.
Unpredictable, intense, and with an almost endless fuel load, a fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in early May prompted the Minnesota DNR to call in available resources, including Rush City, which has a mutual aid agreement with the state for these situations. The call sparked a frantic afternoon on May 9, as fire chief Bob Carlson sought four volunteers, and members of the department readied a truck for the trip.
The DNR has specific requests for crews and the department's Chevrolet pumper truck had to have all of its four-inch hose removed and replaced with a 1000 feet of two-and-a-half and another 1000 feet of one-and-a-half inch hose, both of which are smaller and easier to use, and waste less water than larger hose.
Carlson commended the entire department for coming together in those early hours and preparing the truck, getting himself, Noel Nessel, Chris Nelson, Dave Schroeder Jr., and Adam Mossiman on the road by later that evening.
"The people who helped get us ready were just as important" as the volunteers who made the trip, said Carlson to the Rush City Council on May 29.
Carlson and company arrived in Duluth that evening and spent the night in an armory with 200 to 300 people. They received their marching orders early the next morning. The DNR placed them about 50 miles north of Grand Marais, near Seagull Point.
They were part of a strike team, along with members of the Lindstrom, Lakeville, Forest Lake, and Ramsey fire departments, tasked with protecting structures from the large, encroaching fire.
The strike team was totally self-supportive and on their own for the six days they were in the BWCA, preparing for the worst for 12 hours a day and sleeping in tents at an on-site base camp at night.
The fire was never closer than about a half-mile, visible across Gunflint Lake from the Rush City crew's location, but the danger was ever present. Fires of that magnitude produce large amounts of firebrands - airborne burning embers - that can travel up to a mile and cause new fires to spark. A change in wind direction can turn a relatively quiet day into a fire storm quickly. Fortunately, that never happened. "There was no fire creeping up our backs," said Carlson, "but the potential was always there."
To prepare for that worst case scenario, the Rush City crew spent most of its time putting fire suppressing foam on lawns, and testing and repairing the sprinkler systems that are recommended structures in the high risk area.
Much of crew's time was spent repairing leaky PVC lines and malfunctioning pumps that are part of those systems, and running the sprinklers to reduce the fire danger in the immediate area around structures.
Tired from the long days, the five firefighters returned to Rush City on May 15. And though they never had to look the fire in the eye, Carlson said the experience was invaluable. "The best thing I can say is that I got to work with four of our own guys for six days, 12 hours a day. You feel comfortable, you feel protected, and you learn to trust your crew."
According to the DNR, what is being called the Ham Lake fire started on May 6 and burned in the U.S. and Canada for 14 days before it was contained on May 20. It burned almost 76,000 acres, including over 36,000 acres in northern Minnesota.
The cost of suppressing the fire on the Minnesota side of the border is estimated to be approaching the $9 million mark.
Aside from fuel and expenses, which the department pays for itself as part of the mutual aid agreement, Rush City's participation will cost the state $15,925, which Carlson said would be placed in the department's equipment fund.
Councilor Mick Louzek directed staff to send a letter of thanks to members of the fire department for their efforts preparing for and battling the Ham Lake fire. "It was a job well done," he said.
Comment from Erik Anderson, 6/7/07
Additional information can be found at http://www.hamlakefire.com
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