A 25-acre wildfire near Steamboat Lake on Friday afternoon had firefighting aircraft scramble and sent up a large smoke plume visible from Highway 371.
A U.S. Forest Service “Beaver” plane first observed the fire east of Guthrie at about 1:30 p.m., and crews were mopping up the fire by about 4:30 p.m., said Mike Locke, a duty officer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources office in Bemidji. Two other fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter also helped fight the blaze, he said.
Fire trucks and ground personnel were also on hand to protect nearby homes as a precautionary measure, but no structures were threatened by the fire and no residents were evacuated, Locke said.
DNR firefighters as well as crews from the Lakeport, Cass Lake and other area fire departments assisted with suppressing the fire, which was about 30 miles southeast of Bemidji near the border of Cass and Hubbard counties.
