The clear, blue skies over Snowbank Lake filled with billowing smoke on October 11, as the Forest Service set a prescribed fire in timber that was blown down in the July 1999 windstorm. Fire experts consider the controlled burn just the first of many more to come in and near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Dead trees become candles, and then torches.
Balsam firs vanish in crackling explosions of flame.
Black and gray billows from the woods and circle into a growing column. See larger image. The lake also marks the western tip of the massive blow-down area stretching from near Ely, almost 30 miles east across the wilderness to the Gunflint Trail. The target area is almost completely surrounded by water, and the prevailing winds would carry any flaming material out over the lake. At just-under 100 acres, this is a relatively small fire.