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While Ely has largely stayed clear of the fire danger that has gripped some nearby communities, its fire department has been called for help.
For three days last week, an Ely fire engine, staffed by two local firefighters, traveled to Brimson in central St. Louis County to aid in the fire containment effort.
Dave Marshall, Ely’s fire chief, provided both an update and some words of caution during his report to city council members Tuesday night.
“We did have some personnel last week on what is being called the Brimson Complex incident, which of course is two wildfires,” said Marshall.
An Ely Type IV fire engine was used last week.
“We had two staff people on the fire for three days,” said Marshall. “They left here at five in the morning each day and arrived back at 9:30 at night. We’ll get reimbursed by the DNR for those efforts.”
As of Tuesday, the Camp House Lake Fire, which is near Brimson, was 59 percent contained and had encompassed about 12,106 acres.
The Jenkins Lake Fire near Hoyt Lakes was only six percent contained and covered 16,694 acres.
Marshall told council members that “I am cautious about how many resources to send,” to an area nearly two hours away.
“I’m cautious because the same danger that exists in Brimson, exists in the Ely area as well,” said Marshall. “We’re one cigarette butt or one unattended campfire from having the same kind of conditions appear. It doesn’t feel right if our resources are over an hour away. It’s important to help but also important to remember that our primary duty is to the taxpayers of Ely and we want to make sure folks in this town, this area are protected.”
Marshall also sought to clarify details of the evacuation system used by St. Louis County, the system known as “Ready, Set, Go.”
‘It’s a good system,” said Marshall. “It prepares people prior to an evacuation that this might be coming, but it can also create anxiety especially if people don’t understand what ‘ready, set, go,’ means.”
On a map, the system uses colors with those in green areas under normal conditions and yellow designated ‘ready’ orange as ‘set’ and red as ‘go.’
“Ready means you should be prepared if conditions change, and set is one level before evacuation, where at that point you might want to have things packed in your vehicle, and of course ‘go’ is to find a different area,” said Marshall.
The evacuation readiness, with some areas near Babbitt and Hoyt Lakes in the ‘ready’ or ‘set’ positions, led to some mistaken assumptions that those residents were being evacuated.
“They were in a ready or set mode,” said Marshall. “I think it’s important to understand what that means.”
