14% of Greenwood fire in northeastern Minnesota now contained

Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures, elevated humidity and light rain Saturday to contain 14% of the Greenwood fire, a key milestone in stopping its rapacious spread.

The containment, along the northwest corner of the fire line, signals officials' confidence the fire will not cross that threshold. Hundreds of workers stretching around the fire's perimeter are now working to fortify the rest of the nearly 26,000-acre blaze in Superior National Forest.

"We are making good progress with this weather, with our logging operation where we are prepping the road systems," Pete Glover, operations sections chief for the Eastern Area Incident Management Team, said in his Saturday briefing.

Crews are clearing fallen trees along Hwy. 2, hoping to fully contain the fire's western border and keep the road clear for passage. On the southeast corner, crews are looking for areas to hold the line, either along Hwy. 1 or the Stony River, to protect Isabella.

The fire — believed to have been started by a lightning strike — has destroyed 14 residences and 57 outbuildings and is threatening more, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Showers, including some possible heavier rain, fueled cautious optimism for a productive Saturday evening.

"You need a real good rain to put out this stuff out," Larry Bickel, a spokesman for the Eastern Area Incident Management Team, said. "If we get wind and sun, that little stuff dries up — you know, the (pine) needles and leaves — and those are the primary carrier of the fire."

Officials are now bracing for the possibility of gusty winds Sunday.

Winds can help refuel fires by drying out kindling on the forest floor. It also creates more dangerous conditions for firefighters with possible falling trees.

"We may be in good shape for a while, but we have to watch and see what this wind does," Bickel said.

The U.S. Forest Service is managing a smattering of other fires throughout northern Minnesota, including the John Ek (1,563 acres) and Whelp (50 acres) fires burning north of Tofte in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Neither of those blazes, also started by lightning, has reached any level of containment.

There are several fires burning in Quetico Provincial Park, just across the Canadian border from the BWCA in Ontario. U.S. agencies are monitoring three of those fires, threatening to spread into Minnesota near Crooked and Iron lakes, with daily reconnaissance flights.

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767