The effort to combat wildfires in the Ely area has resulted in an “all hands on deck” approach from units of government - and even the Ely School District has joined in that effort.
The school campus is being turned into an incident command center.
“The Ely Public School is preparing our campus to serve as the U.S. Forest Service Incident Command Center in support of the ongoing wildfire response. We’re proud to partner with the dedicated men and women working to keep our communities safe,” the district posted online.
“Our parking lots will be closed to the public, and you will start to see a large presence of the U.S. Forest Service at the school. They are starting to mobilize equipment.
“Thank you to our staff, volunteers, and emergency responders for their flexibility, teamwork, and commitment during this time. Together, we are stronger.”
This week school buses were deployed to evacuate dozens of people from the Fernberg Road area.
School officials had been in contact with U.S. Forest Service personnel over the weekend, and talk turned to action late Monday as the fires spread rapidly and the threat of evacuation became reality.
“We were starting to prepare and they had talked about using the school if they need to do an incident command center,” school superintendent Anne Oelke said Tuesday afternoon. “Then last night was when they said ‘we need to do this.’” The Memorial High School building will serve as the command center as personnel occupy various classrooms and other parts of the building, both day and night.
“It’s primarily the Memorial and they’re still deciding if they are going to need showers or if they’re going to bring in a shower truck,” said Oelke.
It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday how many personnel would be stationed at the school, or for how long, but Oelke said, “There definitely is going to be a lot of presence.”
“You’ll see a lot of presence outside the buildings,” said Oelke. “There will be a lot of semis, trucks and trailers of all sorts. They may possibly have to camp. They could be setting up tents in the football field.”
The school will receive rental fees in exchange for the use of facilities. Officials were still sorting out contractual details with Forest Service management.
“They’ve done this in other communities and it seems like it will be very amicable,” said Oelke. “They did tell me we can set dates and they totally understand we are a school and we have to get the buildings ready (for the upcoming school year).”
In addition to the school buildings and campus, school vehicles have also been used.
“We sent a bus last night to Moose Lake and evacuated some people at some of the resorts,” said Oelke. “And we sent two more busses up to the boy scout base (Tuesday) and brought the people back to the school as they waited for a charter bus to come and get them.”
