Most of town proper is now back to level one as of an hour ago but I'm still very close to the level two area, and am leaving my truck packed except for my go-bag and a few items I can quickly add....I can smell smoke at the moment but was fine all night and early this am......
I hope all goes well. I had a bad experience in our Lake home in the Spring of 2016.
It was a very low humidity day, with bright sunshine and very high winds. We had decorators painting the exterior at the time. Other than that I was the only one around.
It was early afternoon and I was working in my shop. As the painting crew got back from lunch the lights went out in the shop, and the old Wisconsin V4 generator started up right away. Despite a muffler from an old Allis Chalmers Tractor it had quite a bark.
I quizzed the crew to see if they had spotted anything unusual on the way in. The said they had not. So I checked my panel to confirm there was no power to the house.
I phoned the power company, and made the report. When I went back out I could not see the end of Benedict Lake. It was obscured by thick black smoke.
So I dialed 911 to report a fire. The operator was obtuse, and wanted to know if I had seen flames. I said I had not, but knew there was serious fire in the Paul Bunyan Forrest. Anyway she alerted the fire service and I got in my 1948 Jeep CJ 2A and went to investigate. I found a serious fire rapidly raging off Benedict Parkway. I stayed there until the Laporte volunteer fire department arrived, and then the Walker volunteer fire department. The fire was way beyond what they could control.
The fire rapidly became a crown fire you can only attack from the air. By this time I had no road access out.
So I alerted the paint crew, and I said if things continued we would have to evacuate by boat. They were panicked, but I reassured them that the boat was reliable and I had room for all. I said Benedict had a river to Leech Lake and that in 20 minutes we could be at the Walker dock.
So I grabbed all essential legal documents and put them in the boat. Then I went back to the scene in the Jeep and observed. The fire was only a half to three quarters of a mile away, and spreading fast driven by the wind, right towards our house. We would have been the sixth to burn up.
Then a huge tanker plane appeared and the pilot brought the plane over, literally at tree top level, and doused the fire with that bright pink fire retardant. We were very lucky as that plane just happened to be at the Bemidji airport just 30 miles away.
The ground crews were then able to get control of the ground fires that had broken out all over the place.
The wind had blown a tree down onto a large power line, despite a 30 foot corridor and set the forest ablaze.
Anyhow it was that event, that made me think it was not a good idea to have my AV gear, valuable antique tractors, boats, and antique vehicles at that location. So we sold up three years later. For a variety of reasons that was a wise decision. It was a tough wrench though, to leave that beautiful home, in its idyllic location. All good things must end.
So I know something of what a scary anxious time you are going through. If you have to leave, just make sure you leave in time.
