Fires, Community and Friendship

I have begun to write this blog for a few days, but things have been changing so fast it has been difficult to know what to say. On July 12th fires exploded in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area caused by a thunder storm with lots of lightening strikes a few days before.  The next day Ely was filled with smoke and evacations in the area surrounding Ely were ordered. In the "ready, set, go" evacuation preparation many housholds were placed in set stage meaning they needed to be ready to leave at any moment. The Forest Service made the diffficult but necessary decision to close the entire Boundary Waters and bring all campers out as fast as possible.  Forest Rangers began going by canoe from lake to lake telling campers to pack up and leave immediatly. Some campers near the rapidly growing fires were evacuated leaving all their gear behind in order to get to safety. Those first few days were so frightening and sad.

Ely itself was not considered in danger but it filled quickly with folks who had to evacuate from the surrounding area. But the fires were so close that everyone was on edge and making preparations in case things got much worse. The Chamber of Commerce made the difficult decision to cancel the Blueberry Arts Festival, one of the biggest events of the summer.  The fear was that should more evacuations be necessary, having an extra 25,000 to 30,000 guests in town would add a great deal to the danger and difficulty.

And then, the town filled with almost 1000 fire fighting personnel both from Minnesota and all around the country.  Hot shot teams began arriving. Fire Boss aircraft arrived at the airport with their water bombing capacity.  Helicopters arrived with bucket capacity to dump large amounts of water on  selected spots.  The aircraft began working the fires, skimming accross lakes to fill their tanks and heading to the fires in formation. Crews began to locate and harden structures all around the fire zones close to Ely, up the Echo Trail and all the way up the Fernberg Road.  They cleared brush, installed sprinkler systems, moved wood piles away from buildings and generally made them easier to protect. In this area there are hundreds of homes, cabins, resorts and other structures in the woods. And the weather cooperated with less heat, less wind and some rain.

As I write this I am filled with gratitude for the fire fighting personnel who have come to our community.  The fires are over 60% contained and are not expanding.  Daily progress reports from the Forest Service are more encouraging every day. It is almost impossible to truely express the levael of gratitude we have for the fire fighting personnel who are here protecting peoples homes, cabins, resorts and our forests.  They have risked their lives to fight these fires.  They are all true professionals and heros.  They work very long days from 6:00am until somewhere between 9:00pm and midnight. At our B&B one of the fire fighting personnel staying here would leave before 6:00am and not return until between 11:00pm and midnight.  We have been honored to put up a number of fire fighting personnel and give them a quite comfortable place for a brief nights rest.

Ely is filled with signs thanking the fire fighters.  Restaurants have recieved gift card purchases to be able to give fire personnel a free meal when they are having a chance to grab a bite. We ae grateful to folks from out of town and even out of state who have purchased these gift cards for our fire fighters.  

We are saddened by the huge financial hit our outfitters, resorts, and stores have taken during this time.  July is the biggest month for canoe trips, shopping, touring our attractions and dining at our restaurants and money earned during this time is critical to peoples bottom line. We hope the rest of the summer can make up some of the loss for everyone.  So, Ely is now open for bussiness and we hope people will plan their vacations for August, September and October.  The BWCA is opening for camping August 5th in many areas.  Folks with permits for late August and September should be able to enjoy their planned trips.

But enough about the fires.  Friendship and community have been the silver lining in these three weeks. A totally volunteer group came together almost overnight in the first few days to provide information, help people find places to stay after evacuation, give out N95 masks and air purifiers and provide a cool place to come in out of the heat. In one day their Go Fund Me page raised over $20,000 for one of our local volunteer fire department working tirelessly on the fires. When the Blueberry Festival was cancelled the three communities of Ely, Babbit and Tower came together to create a new event they called the Blueberry Loop so local vendors, food trucks, and food booths could make some money and everyone could have a fun weekend.  It was a huge success! Donations poured in for food and snacks for fire fighters, local hotels and B&Bs made room for fire fighting personnel who needed a place to rest.  The local school opened up as a command center location, the college grounds became a huge mess hall for the fire fighters with hundreds of meal three time a day.

Ely has always been a great place to live and visit.  And fire has always been a part of the ecology of the boreal forest.  As hard as it is to know our favorite campsites have burned, we know it will regenerate. I think after everthing settles, the fires are out and things return to somewhat normal, Ely will be an even better place to live and visit.  We have learned how we show up in a crisis and that will make us better.  We hope to see you soon!