Aviation playing crucial role in battling Minnesota wildfires
Crews continue to battle three large wildfires across northern Minnesota from the ground and above, and aviation is proving to be a critical part of the fight — before and after a blaze starts.
"It's crucial," said Matt Woodwick, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' assistant wildfire aviation supervisor. "Right now, with this year's fire season and the fire behavior we're seeing, we couldn't do without the aircraft."
Those extra eyes from above have been scanning for smoke for days.
"Early detection is key. It's hard to fight those fires when they grow you you want to keep them as small as possible, so on these windy days, they're not growing into, you know, 100-, 200-acre fires," said Tracie Walter, CEO and president of Bemidji Aviation Services, one of the contracted DNR partners.
With more than 37,000 acres already burning, the job is even more draining. The DNR teams up with pilots across the state acting as detection teams. They're split up across 15 zones, flying set routes for hours at a time.
"A single engine airplane that flies a pattern like a GPS point to a GPS point. When they get to the point, they do a 360-degree turn, look around the area, and then move on. It's hot, it's bumpy. They're flying a smaller aircraft that would only hold four people, and on these hot, windy days, it's exhausting," said Walter, who is also a pilot.
If a fire is spotted from their Cessna C172, they call it in and the fight is on, with dozens of aircraft above and hundreds more personnel on the ground. But it's a fight officials say is happening more and more.
"We used to have a rule of thumb, every two out of 10 years we would have a fire season kind of like what we're seeing now. I do feel like those years are more frequent," said Woodwick.
He says the fight would be impossible without the teamwork with other federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But even more important is the help from the public. Officials say adhere to burn bans and make sure all campfires are fully extinguished.
