INFORMATION #4 06-04-2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Other resources were called in from 28 states and Canada to help with the Ham Lake effort, including fire fighters, aircraft, mobile food and shower units, communications equipment, and an overhead team. Gunflint Volunteers Rise to the Challenge Some of the first engines responding to the fire were from the Gunflint Volunteer Fire Department, which was started in 1992 after the Windigo Lodge fire in 1991 killed seven people. The Department was front and center on structural protection efforts during the Ham Lake fire, assisting the Cook County Sheriff with evacuating some 300 people from the Gunflint corridor. Rising from the original Gunflint Fire Rescue and Ambulance Service of the 1980s, the all- volunteer department had to learn how to provide their own structural protection in an area surrounded by wilderness and more than 60 miles from the next-closest fire department. Working with various federal, state, and county agencies, the volunteers learned to equip and train themselves, to provide for defensible space around structures, and to handle water for fire protection and suppression. The Gunflint Department-now 30 volunteers strong and equipped with five engines, an ambulance and supply truck-was instrumental in preparing the Gunflint corridor for a fire like this one in the years following the 1999 blowdown. The department has helped home and business owners install and maintain sprinkler systems, create evacuation plans, and train its volunteer firefighters to fight fire along the wildland-urban interface. The department has had some unique challenges along the way. Chief among those challenges is geography: the department covers a huge geographic area, some 60-plus miles along the Gunflint Trail. When the department organized in the early 1990s, the communications systems along the trail were so primitive that the volunteers used calling trees to round up volunteers when a fire call came in. The department also suffered a setback in 2000, when fire destroyed one fire hall and the engines and equipment inside. As a result of steady tax-based income, grant-writing and volunteer tenacity, today the Gunflint Volunteer Department is now better equipped to rise to challenges like the Ham Lake Fire, according to Fire Chief Dan Baumann. The department has a radio communications system, a command structure, and three fire halls to coordinate the volunteer effort across its massive district. "I'm very proud to say that this department has really dedicated people that get the training they need to keep up to date, and we work really well together," said Baumann. "This fire was a test of all our training. It was not a textbook fire because it involved wildland and structures and was a moving target. Some of our guys stayed with engines around the clock to keep pumping on structures. " With the structural threat diminished, the Gunflint volunteer firefighters will now turn their attention to helping neighbors and friends clean up and rebuild where their valiant efforts were overwhelmed. ###