A 20-acre brush fire scene, just off Sherwood Road in Shoreview, is now a blackened, charred landscape.

Now, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hoping to keep it from happening again with new restrictions on fire use.

“We have really dry vegetation, even with the recent rainfall,” says Karen Harrison, a wildlife prevention specialist with the DNR. “From Thursday to Monday, the DNR responded to over forty wildfires. Since the beginning of March, we responded to one-hundred-eighteen.”

Those dry grasses and leaves, the DNR says, are fuel for fire.

Authorities say the Shoreview fire broke out around 7 p.m. Saturday and spread quickly.

“It was like something out of those smokejumper movies you see,” recalled Caleb Koskela, who took pictures at the scene. “The trees were all, like everything was on fire, while the field in front of me was all burnt up. Everyone was back and forth grabbing stuff, so pretty insane.”

It took more than 50 firefighters from numerous departments more than four hours to bring the blaze under control.

Drone video shared with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS shows acre after acre of blackened earth spread across a dried landscape.

Authorities believe the fire was caused by two children playing with matches.

“There was a significant amount of fire once it got into the trees, and very large flames,” explains Assistant Chief Jonathan Rasch with the Lake Johanna Fire Department. “The rest of the vegetation on top never had a chance to green up. So, you’re left with all the dead and decaying grasses from the previous year that remain dry.”

The response to the Shoreview fire comes just a week after a 42-acre fire broke out in Waconia.

The DNR is calling for restrictions that put a halt to any brush fire piles more than three feet high and three feet wide in a fifteen-county area around the metro.

The agency says campfires are okay.

“Decrease the amount of wildfire we’re seeing from debris burning,” Harrison explains. “That’s the number one cause of wildfires in Minnesota.”

But why now?

It turns out our snowmelt wasn’t enough to counteract the dry conditions.

“We had a very persistent drought all through the winter and little to no snowpack across a lot of the state,” Harrison notes. “Especially in the southern half, below average precipitation across the winter.”

“Everything’s so dry that even a little spark can cause stuff to go so fast,” Koskela adds. “Even with no wind.”

The DNR says it’s unknown how long the restrictions will last, although Harrison says there will likely have to be new vegetative growth before conditions change.

Meanwhile, she hopes the new measures will make a difference.

“Hoping we can help to reduce the number of wildfires because 90% of them are caused by people,” Harrison says.