(WCCO) -Nearly a month after a lightning strikes sparked wildfires in northern Minnesota, officials said Wednesday that conditions have started to ease and they are starting to focus efforts towards recovery.
Gov. Tim Walz and other public safety officials said there is no need to extend the peacetime emergency that is set to expire Tuesday as the flames that have razed 65,000 acres of forest in Minnesota are no longer spreading. In the past few weeks, timely rain helped to dampen the wildfires, though officials say there’s still a lot of hot spots and residual heat within the Superior National Forest.
“While firefighting operations continue, our focus has also shifted towards recovery, which begins long before the last fire is ever put out,” said Commissioner of Public Safety Bob Jacobson.
Northern Minnesota residents will still need to heed local warnings as conditions could change, officials say. There will likely be no rain over the next week, they added.
Walz, who last week said he was considering a special session to address economic recovery in the area, walked back on idea, saying it was a “pretty heavy political lift” in a divided legislature during campaign season.
He said he was still open to the prospect, but it would “more than likely” be a discussion for the regular session next year.
Last week, dozens of entry points in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness reopened after wildfires in northern Minnesota forced them to close for more than two weeks. As of Tuesday, the largest fire — dubbed Bear Trap — was 40% contained and had burned nearly 38,000 acres. At the peak, there were 2,400 personnel working to suppress the wildfires.
Elevated burning restrictions remain in place in northeastern Minnesota, according to the DNR. Fire danger across the state is mostly low to moderate as of Wednesday, but a patch of central Minnesota is in the high category.
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