DULUTH, Minn. -- Six Superior National Forest rangers deployed rarely-used emergency shelters to escape injury in the wildfire burning in the Boundary Waters of northeastern Minnesota.
Kawishiwi District ranger Mark Van Every says two groups of rangers were in the Insula Lake area Sept. 12 when the wildfire rapidly enveloped them. One group of rangers landed their canoes on a small rock island where they covered themselves with the aluminum foil shelters. The other group of rangers jumped into the lake and covered themselves with the flame-resistant shelters.
Every tells the Duluth News Tribune burning embers were raining down on the rangers. Once the front of the fire moved past them, the rangers spent the night on the island and were picked up by a float plane the next morning.
