From Superior National Forest - September 3, 2021

GREENWOOD FIRE QUICK FACTS: ACRES: 26,089 CONTAINMENT: 37% PERSONNEL: 484

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: There will be a Community Meeting for the Greenwood Fire tonight, Friday, September 3, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center located at 6282 Cranberry Road, Finland, MN. The meeting will be live streamed on the Superior National Forest’s Facebook page. Come meet the new incident management team and get a current fire update. Meeting attendees are requested to follow current CDC guidelines regarding the use of face masks, social distancing, and handwashing.

SUMMARY: Started by lightning, the Greenwood Fire was detected on August 15, 2021, around 3:00 p.m. on the Laurentian Ranger District. Generally, the fire is between Greenwood Lake and the intersections of Highways 1 and 2. The communities of Ely, Babbitt, Finland, Toimi-Brimson, and areas along the North Shore are not threatened by this fire. The objective of fire management for the Greenwood Fire is full suppression using all available resources. Due to favorable weather and fire efforts, the threat to cabins, homes, and recreational sites in the area is greatly diminished. Fourteen primary structures and 57 outbuildings were destroyed on August 23.

YESTERDAY: Crews continued securing the western and northern perimeter of the fire, looking for any areas of heat and mopping them up. In the south and east, fire personnel scouted for opportunities to build direct line along the uncontained edge. Heavy equipment worked south down Stony Grade Road.

TODAY: Fire crews will continue mop up and remove hazardous trees along the Highway 1 and 2 corridors. Crews are still scouting along the southern and eastern edge for direct line construction opportunities while the weather moderates fire behavior. Heavy equipment will complete the contingency line improvement on Stony Grade Road.

WEATHER/FIRE BEHAVIOR: A cold front moved into the region last night bringing a chance of rain through today. Temperatures will remain cool and humidity will be higher than average. Behind the front and through the weekend, winds are expected to shift to the northwest and become gusty. Temperatures and relative humidity will return to more typical for the season.

SAFETY & EVACUATIONS: At 8:00 a.m. the Lake County Sheriff reopened the closed and evacuated section of Hwy 2 (between Forest Hwy 11 and Hwy 1) to home and cabin owners in the Greenwood Lake, Sand Lake and Dunka River Road areas. Each property owner will be given 2 check-point passes that will need to be shown each time they enter Hwy 2 through one of the check-points (either at the intersection of Forest Hwy 11 and Hwy 2 on the south end or Hwy 1 and Hwy 2 on the north end). Passes are currently limited to property owners and their immediate families in order to limit traffic for fire crew safety. For information about entering your property, call Lake County Dispatch, 218-510-0640. You can also sign up for emergency text alerts and calls from Lake County at https://www.co.lake.mn.us/emergency-management/.

CLOSURES:

• Hwy 1 is closed from New Tomahawk Rd to Lankinen Rd.

• A Forest Service closure order is in place to protect public health and safety due to the Greenwood Fire. It extends across the Kawishiwi, Laurentian, and Tofte Ranger Districts. On September 1 the closure order was updated to allow use of Stony Spur Trail and a portion of Prospector Loop Trail which allows ATVs to travel safely from Babbitt to Ely. To see the full Forest order and other Forest closures, visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/superior.

• A Temporary Flight Restriction for aircraft is in place over the fire area.

AIR QUALITY: Minnesota smoke outlook: https://fires.airfire.org/outlooks/Minnesota. Additional information for the rest of the state can be found at https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air/current-air-quality.

FIRE RESTRICTIONS: Fire restrictions are being evaluated daily and are currently in place for the Superior National Forest and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for areas within state jurisdiction Cook and Lake Counties and northern St. Louis County. Superior National Forest: Fire Restrictions Order and our Campfire Restrictions. See our FAQ for more information. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: MN DNR Wildland Fire Information.