Wildfire Chases Wisconsin Residents From Homes

May 15--Crews from Wisconsin and Minnesota worked through the night battling a wildfire in Wisconsin's Douglas and Bayfield counties that now has burned across 8,700 acres.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reports that 47 structures, including 17 homes, have been destroyed in a mostly rural and wooded area southeast of Solon Springs, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported.

No injuries had been reported. Several power poles also have burned, downing electric and telephone lines in some areas.

Evacuees have been asked to meet at Drummond High School at 8 a.m. today for an update on when they might be able to return to their homes.

Overnight 19 fire departments assisted the DNR and the U.S. Forest Service on battling the fire.

Early this morning small spot fires were still burning in the heart of the fire area, and burned trees were fallen across roads. Heavy smoke cloaked the area.

The charred remains of what appeared to be seasonal cabins could be seen from several roads, in the vicinity of Douglas County Highway A, between 6 and 7 a.m.

The fire burned right up to the yard of Bob Gotelaere at his home on Ellison Lake Road. It spared everything but his outhouse. Smoke and small fires were still visible in the area.

"At 8:30 (p.m.) there was too much fire so we just ran. I have no idea why this didn't burn; I don't know if someone was here fighting the fire or not because we just got out of here," he said.

His brother-in-law's trailer across the road burned; firefighters were still in the yard putting out the remaining flames on Wednesday morning.

Firefighters saved 77 structures, including 42 homes, the DNR said this morning. The DNR says it's the largest wildfire in northern Wisconsin in 33 years.

In a cruel twist of fate, much of the current fire area was covered in an early May snow 12 days ago. But because the woods have not yet greened up, and last year's leaves and grasses still are ready to burn, the region becomes prone to fire this time of year whenever a week or more passes without substantial rain.

A ban on outdoor fires is in effect for most of the region. Officials said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Today's forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70s, with northwest winds to 20 mph, which could push the fire toward the southeast.

DNR officials early today said the fire was about 90 percent contained but that windy conditions could help rekindle the blaze first reported Tuesday afternoon.

An 18-mile perimeter had been set up around the fire that was burning young red pines and hardwoods, said Neal Kephart, a spokesman for the DNR. The leading edge of the fire was about a mile and a half north of Barnes and moving southeast. It had been burning northeast earlier in the day.

Sheriff's deputies were canvassing rural areas around Solon Springs and Barnes to evacuate people and block roads. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation closed state Highway 27 in the area as the fire hopped over the road northwest of Barnes.

A shelter and fire command post were set up in Barnes early in the evening, but they were moved as the fire grew. Evacuees were being sent to Drummond, east of Barnes, where Red Cross workers were set up. The fire command moved to Gordon, south and east of Barnes.

Residents were being evacuated from lake homes and cabins in the Rock Lake, Loon Lake, Murray Lake and Beauregard Lake areas early in the evening. By 9 p.m. evacuations had been ordered for people in Barnes Township in Bayfield County. People living west of County Road A and north of County Road N were told to leave the area.

Colleen and Scott Ruhman, owners of Cedar Lodge Steakhouse-Grille on Highway N, were taking heed of the evacuation, but first wanted to gather insurance papers, money out of the safe and blueprints of the business, Colleen said. She said the fire was "everywhere" and now they were in danger after it jumped Highway 27, which remained closed late Tuesday.

"They're evacuating the whole town," Ruhman said.

Andrea Babcock is a fire warden in the Barnes area and said all she saw Tuesday while driving around the area was "smoke, smoke, smoke." She said the town of Barnes was on alert as of 9:30 p.m. So far, she hadn't seen damage from the fire but said police weren't allowing anyone to go near it.

"This is a big one," Babcock said.

The fire was threatening an area called Potawatomi Estates north of Barnes. It has 250 seasonal and year-round homes, said association president Greg Roman. He was in Arizona and trying to reach residents but was unable to Tuesday night because of the evacuations.

Just after 8 p.m., at least two large homes were fully engulfed along Sutfin Road west of Rock Lake, about eight miles east of Solon Springs.

Douglas County Emergency Management director Keith Kesler said at 7:30 p.m. that the fire was nearly a mile wide and 5 miles long. He said crews from 12 fire departments were in the area along with "anyone able to fight a fire," including crews from the Wisconsin DNR and firefighters from Minnesota. Air tankers and scoop planes from both states were being used to drop water on the fire.

Kephart from the DNR said crews would keep coming in to spell tired firefighters.

Firefighting units include seven tractor plows, two heavy dozers, two air-attack planes and the four single-engine air tankers from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Wisconsin DNR reported that 16 more tractor plows were on the way.

Bill Cosh, a Wisconsin DNR spokesman who was contacted in the afternoon after the fire consumed 200 acres, said at the time that the fire had moved up into the crowns of dry pine trees in the Germann Road area.

Smoke from the fire could be seen from as far away as Duluth.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, it was 86 degrees at the Solon Springs airport with southwest winds gusting to 26 mph helping to push the fire across dry ground, including last year's dried leaves and grass. Officials were expecting a wind shift sometime in the night, meaning the fire could turn back on already burned areas.

Temperatures and winds were expected to calm today across the Northland, with temperatures in the 70s and lesser winds, helping reduce fire danger.

The Minnesota Interagency Fire Center said several new fires had broken out in northern Minnesota, including a fire about 8 miles north of Virginia that aircraft battled but appeared to have doused. Other Minnesota fires were reported near Sturgeon Lake and near Park Rapids and Menahga.

Nearly 5,000 acres had burned in a fire on the Red Lake Reservation on Monday and Tuesday. A red-flag warning was in effect for most of Minnesota on Tuesday, with high winds and temperatures rising to 100 degrees in some areas.

Gov. Mark Dayton issued an executive order for emergency assistance at Red Lake and other areas where fires were discovered.

Temperatures rocketed to 100 degrees in St. James and Fairmont and well into the 90s through the Twin Cities and as far north as Brainerd, while the high in Duluth hit 67 and temperatures on Park Point topped out at only 45.