Pagami Trail Fire cost now $10.4 million

[Lee Borgersen]

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Pagami Trail Fire cost now $10.4 million

by Tom Coomb Ely Echo

The Pagami Creek fire is 59 percent contained, but hundreds of firefighters remain in the area and the price tag for fighting one of the largest fires in Minnesota history stood at $10.4 million, and counting, on Monday night.

And despite the prospect for warmer and windier conditions early in the week, officials say they don't anticipate significant problems to result.

"We don't exepct it to get up and run," said Doug Turman, head of a federal Type 1 firefighting team that's coordinating suppression efforts. "With the manpower we've got and the aircraft, we won't see any major runs."

Turman and Mark Van Every, district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, briefed about 40 people Monday afternoon at the Sommers Boy Scout Base off the Fernberg Road.

Protecting the homes and businesses along the Fernberg corridor has been one of the priorities for those battling a blaze that grew beyond all expectations just over two weeks ago, and resulted in as many as 968 people assigned to the blaze as of Sunday night.

Van Every told those gathered Monday that he "is pretty optimistic that the risk to (the Fernberg corridor) area is very low."

He also defended Forest Service decisions to expand and "burn out" the fire in early-September, citing computer models that without the burnout the fire "would have pushed to the north" and the lower part of the Fernberg corridor.

The USFS has faced criticism in some circles for its management of a fire that started from a lightning strike Aug. 18 about 13 miles east of Ely at the Pagami Creek, and grew from a few thousand acres within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to 100,000 on Sept. 12. It was driven by strong winds and dry conditions and defied computer projections and USFS expectations.

Van Every conceded that if he had known how the fire would grow, "I would have put it out, but we were operating on the best information available at the time."

Since the fire took off, firefighting crews from across the country have descended to the area and the fire has been fought on the ground and from the air.

On Sunday, air resources dropped over 267,000 gallons of water and the fire became more than half contained. Size of the fire is now estimated at about 93,000 acres.

The number of personnel working on the fire jumped temporarily Sunday to nearly 1,000, but spokesman Doug Schmitt said that was attributed to new crews coming into the area while others checked out.

As of late Monday, about 780 people remained on assignment, including more than a dozen hotshot Type 1 crews, 12 Type 2 crews and four camp crews.

According to an incident report released Monday, rehabilitation work began on "dozer lines" outside the BWCAW boundaries and line construction along the fire perimeter.

Forecasts for 70-degree temperature readings and dry and windy conditions Tuesday and Wednesday increase the likelihood for more fire activity, and officials say smoke may be visible.

But as firefighters work to bring more of the fire under control, Van Every indicated that the USFS plans to reopen some entry points into the BWCAW. Other areas directly impacted by the fire won't be open again in 2011.

Van Every said that about 125 campsites are within the fire area, and about 70 were affected by the fire.

Of those, 39 "will require very little work," Van Every said, and another 20 will need more extensive repair.

About 10-12, according to Van Every "won't be able to reopen for a few years."

But responding to a question posed at Monday's meeting, Van Every said he doesn't expect that the blaze will prompt any reduction in wilderness permits.

"At this point, I don't see it impacting permit numbers."