St. Louis County officials seeking disaster aid for destructive wildfires

Additional aid soon could be on the way to assist with northeastern Minnesota s wildfires as St Louis County Board chair Annie Harala declared a state of local urgency and catastrophe Monday She signed the declaration eight days after the Camp House Fire began and one week after the Jenkins Creek and Munger Shaw fires ignited The three wildfires have combined to scorch more than acres of land in St Louis County destroying more than structures including houses and cabins in their wake A county news release described the declaration as a procedural step toward requesting state citizens tragedy assistance for wildfire response and recovery sessions Harala s declaration will remain valid for up to three days or until the County Board has an opportunity to gather and vote on a declaration Commissioners plan to hold an urgency meeting at a m Tuesday in the county board room of the St Louis County Courthouse in Duluth Sheriff Gordon Ramsay is slated to update commissioners on wildfire sessions and response at that meeting The St Louis County Sheriff s Crisis Management Division is working with affected municipalities to document and assess damages which will then be published to the Minnesota Homeland Precaution and Exigency Management to determine eligibility for state community mishap assistance Meanwhile even as crews continued to make progress controlling the three wildfires the weather threatened to make their work more intricate The return of near-critical fire weather conditions Monday included gusting northeast winds bringing cool dry air north of U S Gusting winds and lower relative humidity in the to range are expected in the same areas Tuesday the National Weather Institution announced in Duluth While rain was overspreading southern Minnesota late Monday not much of it was expected to reach the Arrowhead On Monday morning agents declared the Munger Shaw Fire southeast of Cotton had charred acres and was contained The perimeter of the Jenkins Creek Fire southeast of Hoyt Lakes was completely partially contained Monday morning after scorching acres The U S Forest System s Eastern Area Occurrence Management Band shared that the fire perimeter was contained Great progress was made over the weekend as personnel took advantage of the cooler wetter conditions the fire update read However gusty dry weather elevated the threat to the unincorporated society of Skibo and the city of Hoyt Lakes The Camp House Fire near Brimson was contained Monday morning after burning acres No evacuation orders had changed Monday Officials say the causes of the fires remain under examination