ON THE GUNFLINT TRAIL, Minn. (AP) -- The wildfire burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was fully contained on Friday and 80 firefighters from other states were sent home.
''Today was a busy day,'' said Gil Knight, an information officer at the site of the fire in northeastern Minnesota. ''We got a significant amount of work done in bringing hose and equipment out of the woods.''
Only two portages remain closed and most campsites will be open by Sunday, Knight said. About half a dozen campsites will remain closed as crews do mop up and patrol firelines looking for hot spots.
Only 145 people are still assigned to the fire, most of them from Minnesota. Knight said. The four 20-person crews from Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and West Virginia were released.
The fire burned over 1,335 acres between Alpine, Seagull, Red Rock and Grandpa Lakes. It started with a lightning strike on July 30 and flared up Aug. 6.
The cost of fighting the fire was at just over $2.3 million Friday evening, but Knight said that figure will increase significantly as firefighters are flown home.
On Monday, a new firefighting team will continue rehabilitation work and patrol for hotspots.
It is the largest fire in a decade in the area, which is near the end of the Gunflint Trail, the 57-mile road leading into the wilderness from Grand Marais. Much of the burned area contained dead timber blown down in a 1999 windstorm that toppled millions of trees in and near the BWCAW.
