Trip to to the Cabin, Fire at day 5

Today is going to be a bad day up north. There is a "red flag" warning from the national weather service warning of high winds, hot temperature, and low humidity on the gunflint. The wind is reported to be shifting towards being North Westerly this afternoon, with gusts around 30-40 mph. If this does happen, thats about as windy as it ever gets up there. A NW wind is the worst news for places like Gunflint Lodge that now lies directly in the fires path. I have added a blue wind arrow to my Google map of the fire, and that should also roughly show where the fire is moving. I have also added a orange and red patch to indicate where I think the controlled burn took place based on reports (see below).

There is good news to report today however. As I mentioned, yesterday they did a rather remarkable and spectacular prescribed burn just a mile ahead of the advancing fire in an attempt to stop it from reaching the populated area around Gunflint lake. They cut lines and laid sprinkler hose and then around 6:00 PM dropped fire bombs into the area just inside the two lines and then directed the fire towards the middle. It worked too, so hopefully when the fire does reach this area it will be starved for fuel.

Also today, my Dad has decided to drive up to the cabin to get our own sprinkler system up and running, as well as our neighbors. He was planning to go up on monday normally, but events up there are getting a little to unpredictable so this will at least make every one feel better. Like I keep saying, 100% survival rate so far for structures with sprinklers. The photo on the left is what I am talking about. We installed those sprinklers in 2000 after the big 99' blow-down (thanks FEMA of old) and it consists of a water pump by the lake that runs on gas and propane, that pumps water into a network of pipes that runs out to hoses that connect to dozens of those sprinkler heads that are attached to buildings and on stakes through out the woods. When we were installing it we made fun of them, 'going golfing in the woods!,' 'at least the lawn will look good' (what lawn) and so on. But what they do is create a "dome of humidity" around the area so that the fire literally passes around and over (think floating hot ash) the area protected. It also soaks deep into the fuel around the area if you have time to run it for a few days before hand, so the material wont get dried out by the intense heat of the fire. This is another reason its good my Dad is headed up now, so he can run the system now just incase either this fire jumps miles due to wind spotting ash, or a new fire starts for some unknown reason. Better safe than sorry!