Significant progress in containing Minnesota wildfires

Crews continue to gain ground on wildfires

The Eastern Area Incident Management (EAIM) team told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Sunday that the three biggest wildfires in northern Minnesota were still burning, but firefighters had made significant progress in controlling them over the past several days.

The Camp House fire is more than 90% contained, as is the Munger Shaw fire. The Jenkins Creek fire is now nearly 80% contained, officials say.

RELATED: Jenkins Creek Fire 78% contained as weather conditions could lead to new growth

The Camp House fire destroyed or severely damaged nearly 150 structures, including 30 year-round homes. The last wildfire to consume that many buildings and homes was the Ham Lake fire, along the Gunflint Trail, in 2007.

Micah Bell, with EAIM, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS these types of fires will continue to be more common because more people are moving to wild areas.

“It’s one of those things where over, well who knows how many years, seeing smaller fires like, with higher structure loss, is not going to be uncommon,” said Bell.

Residents in the Hoyt Lakes area are still under an order to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice because the Jensen Creek fire is still under 90% containment.

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Hoyt Lakes resident Holly Gross told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she’s been sleeping better, but it’s not been quite the same when the potential evacuation notices went out.

“The winds had really picked up. They had some of the planes overhead and it was just — it was a little unnerving,” said Gross. “It’s so dry out there yet, low humidity. They’re still out there. I know there’s over 200 firefighters out there every day working on this.”

Two of the three fires, according to fire investigators, are considered to be man-made, but no other information is public about the investigations because they are considered open cases.