Overview
- The U.S. Forest Service closed the entire Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on Tuesday, July 14, and canceled affected permits with automatic refunds through Recreation.gov.
- Multiple lightning‑started blazes have grown rapidly in the Superior National Forest, with official acreage tallies rising from roughly 33,000 acres to estimates near 55,000 acres and many fires remaining uncontained.
- Authorities have issued expanding evacuation orders and carried out dozens of boat and door‑to‑door rescues of campers and residents, including Canadian and Royal Canadian Air Force assistance to reach groups stranded near the border.
- Governor Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency and deployed the Minnesota National Guard while federal, state and local teams coordinate with Canadian partners to prioritize protection of people and structures as resources remain strained.
- The fires and heavy smoke have prompted broad air‑quality alerts, forced overnight closures that hit Ely’s tourism‑dependent economy and put thousands of seasonal jobs and local revenue at risk in coming weeks.