(KNSI) – Fire has officials closing part of a popular northern Minnesota wilderness area.
The U.S. Forest Service is working to extinguish a 30-acre wildfire inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The fire is between Spice Lake and Ogishkemuncie Lake, about ten miles west of the Gunflint Trail. A routine air patrol discovered it on Tuesday afternoon.
Officials are using a plane to make aerial drops of water to slow the fire’s spread. Several groups of campers had to be evacuated from the area.
Smoke from the flames was discovered shortly after the forest service announced a campfire ban for the BWCA. A cause for the fire hasn’t been determined. The ban is in effect until further notification, with no exceptions inside the BWCA.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has a burning ban in Carlton, Cook, Lake and St. Louis Counties.
Wildfires burning in Canada have caused air quality alerts to be issued again for a large swath of Minnesota, including the St. Cloud area.
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