An investigative team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will probe the cause of a wildfire that began Wednesday afternoon and burned approximately 800 acres of grassland on and off Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge in Lac Qui Parle County in western Minnesota. Service fire crews from Big Stone and Minnesota Valley NWR, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes and Morris Wetland Management Districts are continuing today to mop up scattered smoldering areas within the burned area, more than half of which is located on the refuge.
The fire was spotted by Service fire crews at approximately 2:30 p.m. Wednesday on the southeast corner of the refuge. Fueled by northwest wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour, the fire jumped across a gravel road south of the refuge boundary and destroyed an unoccupied barn on private land. The fire also crossed U.S. Highway 75 and burned grassland belonging to The Nature Conservancy and other private land owners. By 9 p.m., Service fire crews, joined by firefighters from local volunteer fire departments, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and local law enforcement agencies had contained the fire. No one was injured. No homes were damaged.
Big Stone NWR is headquartered on County Road 19 near Odessa, Minn., and contains more than 11,500 acres in Big Stone and Lac Qui Parle counties. On Tuesday, Service fire crews conducted a successful prescribed fire on a parcel of refuge land located northwest of the area where the wildfire began. The refuge, like all federal and state resource managers, routinely uses controlled, prescribed fire to reduce excessive woody underbrush and improve wildlife habitat. The burns are conducted by certified crews who have received specialized training. Last year, the Service conducted nearly 400 prescribed fires on more than 70,000 acres of Service-managed land in Minnesota without incident.
A formal investigation into the cause of Wednesday’s fire is continuing.
