FIRE REPORT

Northern Minnesota had three forest fires break out in the space of two days earlier this month. After a few days of the local fire brigades attempting to squash them, things were obviously out of control. A national emergency disaster group, called the Incident Management Team, was called in. The next day, I got the call to assist them because they didn’t have enough people. I had never worked on a fire before and it was extremely interesting. Over 600 people gathered in Two Harbors, Minnesota, to fight the two remaining fires, the Camp House fire and the Jenkins Creek fire.

My title was Public Information Officer, and my job was to go around to the surrounding towns, townships, and bars, and put up information sheets and maps concerning the progress of the fires. Every day I took down the old ones and put up the latest updates. In the process of doing this, I talked to locals, assuaged their fears, encouraged them, and gave them official information to replace rumors and gossip. I also spent some time answering phone calls doing the same things. People were most concerned about getting back to their homes after being evacuated and knowing ahead of time which roads were closed.

Although night time temperatures were in the low 30s the whole time I was gone, when I returned to my cabin I found the blueberries fully leafed out and blossoming. The pine trees candled in my absence. The bumblebees are zooming around and the hummingbirds have returned. I feel like I got trapped in a time warp and totally missed a week and a half of life. But it was a wonderful, difficult, uplifting, rewarding, educational sleep-deprived experience and I am so glad I did it. I have a new knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes in these big disasters.

Over 30,000 acres burned, 150 structures were demolished, but no one was injured or killed. I made some good friends and saw some amazing things, including a moose and a bear. I returned home yesterday to resume my life.