carlos avery fire

[PmDavis300]

anyone know anything? i could see the smoke from 35E in white bear lake

[tunrevir]

Fairly large grass fire. There were four or five different FD's responding and a National Gaurd helicopter coming in for support. Due to the heavy winds and difficult terrain they were having a hard time keeping up to it. 8-10 residences in the potential path were evacuated with the FD's running interference. A half dozen FD's were on the scene and from the dissipating smoke appear to be gaining ground on the fire. It is about 2 miles west of my house and moving to the southeast. They are investigating it as an arson fire due to the suspicious nature of how and where it started. That's about all I know at this time.

Tunrevir~

[PmDavis300]

thanks so much

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

So what bigfoot is loosing his house right now.

[fish with teeth]

that explains it bigfoot was playing with matches

[AugieAngler1010]

I bet the Bigfoot chasers will be out in force now that Bigfoot might be cornered in a smaller area

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

The sad thing is your all right. Well ok maybe or maybe not the matches bit.

[fish with teeth]

that or the smoke and flames will chase him out. be sure to watch the roads for sightings

[fishermusk]

Sounds like a firefighter started it intentionaly, must have been looking for a little overtime.

[Tom7227]

I sort of wonder why it's a big deal other than the possible risk to houses. I've read ton's of articles about how the oak savannah needed occasional fires to keep things in check. I don't know what they do in Carlos Avery for habitat managment so maybe this isn't needed in this area.

BTW - for as little as volunteers get paid per call I doubt the guy was looking to make money. As they say he probably has other 'issues'.

[fishermusk]

I agree on both of your statements. The DNR does do some controled burns out there, but they won't do controlled burns that burn wiregrass swamps or that go through wood lots. I think they could.

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

I missed out on who started it. Whats going on now?

[Tom7227]

News reports only that a fireman has been arrested for starting it. SHort story without any details. I don't know if the fire has flared up again today or not but last night they speculated that it would. The winds yesterday made it just impossbile to do anything to stop the thing.

[tunrevir]

Here is what I know right now. The fireman that was arested for allegedly starting the fires is from Forest Lake and has been a volunteer for a few years. He also owned the local Ford dealership which went under this past year due to some financial issues. The guy has had a tough year and we are wondering if he didn't just kinda go off the deep end a bit. He has been active in the community and given his time in many area functions in the past but has been kind of keeping a low profile since the dealership went under, untill all of this came up. Hard to say what his frame of mind was or what the motivation was to start the fires. I feel bad for his friends and family. Thankfully, no one was hurt or lost a house.

Tunrevir~