Inferno

The Boundary Waters is burning up. It’s high time I wrote an update.
On the 7th of July a dry thunderstorm with lots of lightning started many small fires in the Superior National Forest. At present there are 20 fires still being fought and still expanding. There are firefighters from across the country here trying to save the forest, the cabins, and the canoeists who were unlucky enough to be out when the storm hit. Today the head fire guy said we haven’t had fires like this in 20 years, and he expects they won’t go out until the snow flies. My job, unlike last year when I was assigned to the incident command team, is to stay in our office and answer the phones. Cabin owners from across the country call every day to get some guidance on if they should come and try to rescue their cabins. Everyone wants answers and there are none to be had, as everything depends on the weather, the wind, the rain, the heat. People call in tears, and then it makes me tear up because I can’t help them at all. All I can do is tell them the current situation, which in most cases doesn’t look good. In addition, the air quality is way past dangerous. You can follow the progress of the fires on watchduty.org

My cabin is the blue dot.