Evacuation alerts are still in effect in the Greenwood area and beyond as the wildfire continues to burn, now prompting the Red Cross to establish a center located in Finland Minnesota.

“We are open 24 hours a day and we will take anyone who was displaced by the fire”, says Red Cross Volunteer Domenic Lalama. The Red Cross Station is located at the Finland Community Center. 

As temperatures start to feel a little bit lower and relative humidity is relatively high Lake County Emergency Manager Matt Pollmann says, “maybe the fire crews on the ground can start getting some containment and making some headway.”

Unfortunately fire crews haven't gotten a break as the fire doubled in size growing from 4,734 acres to 9,607 acres. Information Officer Clark McCreedy identifies that growth as the reason for more evacuation orders in the north. 

“And those evacuation orders were focused on the areas of Jackpot Lake, west and east Chub Lake, and Slate Lake… The fire was moving to the north, [and] these communities were potentially at risk, so the sheriff department issued that evacuation order once that fire crossed that management access point”, says McCreedy. 

With their anchor point set on the south end of the fire, the next task is to pinch off the top. McCreedy explains by saying, “Fire behavior is really directed by the weather of the landscape. Once you get a good anchor point then you go up the flanks until such a point where you can pinch the fire off.”

But the weather in the past days hasn’t been helpful, neither has the landscape of the fire. The area where the blaze is located is dominated by wetlands. So getting equipment in and creating access points is extremely difficult for the crews.

But they remain determined to keep the fire from destroying any community structures. 

To see the original report and read related stories, follow this link to the WDIO-TV website. https://www.wdio.com/minnesota-news/greenwood-wildfire-evacuation/6214989/?cat=10335