Minnesota And Wisconsin At Heightened Risk For Wildfires
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - On Friday night, a grass fire shot through the cattails of Legion Lake in a section of Richfield's Veterans Park.
Weather conditions have put both Minnesota and Wisconsin at heightened risk for wildfires.
"The fuels that were burning, you can see in the cattails, they were burning pretty fast," said Richfield Fire Chief, Mike Dobesh.
Denae Hanzal, watched the fire burn from the Minneapolis side of State Highway 62.
"It was really big more toward the east side of Veterans Park compared to the west, but it was definitely something to remember," she said.
The fire burned about four acres. Dobesh says no one was hurt and no structures were damaged.
"This water gave us a great buffer between not only the homes on the east side but also the park buildings on the west side," he said.
Dobesh says the fire's cause is unclear, but the combination of dry air and high winds means it could've been something as small as a flipped cigarette.
There are similarly risky conditions all over the state. A grass fire in Lino Lakes burned nearly 120 acres this week, and a fire in Mentor in northwest Minnesota prompted the State Patrol to tweet a video showing how quickly driving visibility can plummet when heavy smoke crosses over a roadway.
All of Wisconsin's counties are considered to be under "high" or "very high" fire danger including Eau Claire, where multiple homes were evacuated Friday after a brush fire.
"This could happen anywhere there's dry prairie grass, anywhere there's dry cattails," Dobesh said. "We're just at that point in the season where we're all, as firefighters, a little bit concerned about what the future holds."
If you're planning to have a bonfire in the backyard or something similar, fire officials say winds even as low as five miles an hour can be dangerous.