Federal, state and local fire crews fighting the fast-growing fires racing across northwest Minnesota may get some help from snow and rain Wednesday.
The wind-driven flames expanded exponentially Tuesday, with one fire ending the day eight times larger than it had been in the morning.
A blaze near Karlstad forced evacuations and destroyed six homes in the city, according to Jean Bergerson, spokeswoman for the Interagency Fire Center. Another, burning grassland, woods and peatbogs north of Red Lake, ran 6 miles beyond fire lines after firefighters were moved from that remote area to help protect Karlstad.
"We had to split the resources to see where they could do some good," Bergerson said. "That's where you get into problems in weather like this."
A third fire, in a peat swamp near Viking and believed to have been knocked out last weekend, revived and was burning a 5-mile corridor Tuesday afternoon.
A total of eight fires spread from nearly 3 1/2 square miles in the morning to more than 15 square miles by Tuesday evening as high winds, low humidities, and relatively warm temperatures inflamed a landscape already crisped by drought and the onset of fall.
Wednesday's forecasted rain-snow mix is not likely to extinguish them, but will help, Bergerson said. "The weather is going to change in our favor for a couple of days ... There's a good chance we're not going to get a lot of fire starts [Wednesday]. We're not going to be pulled in so many directions," she said.
The approaching cold front prompted the National Weather Service to lift the "red flag" fire warning that had been in place over the western half of the state for several days, and replace it with alerts for accumulating snow.
