A few days ago I posted about the fire danger here in northern Michigan. Now we have a real wildfire in progress in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, roughly 75 miles northwest of the Mackinac Bridge. The Duck Lake Fire started last week with a lightning strike. As of yesterday (Memorial Day) it had burned 22,000 acres, or nearly 35 square miles, of forestland. Close to 100 structures, a third of them homes and cabins, have been destroyed.
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| The Duck Lake Fire. (Michigan DNR Photo) |
I think of wildfires as something that happens in California or Texas, not Michigan. But the hot, dry conditions this spring have made northern Michigan a tinderbox. This Duck Lake blaze is being fought by over 200 firefighters, plus police and conservation officers who have to keep a close eye on the evacuation zone.
Photos online show the fire burning almost to the beach on Lake Superior. It has also burned to the Two Hearted River, the trout stream which provided the title for one of Ernest Hemingway's short stories. Last I heard, the fire was not yet contained. •••
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