Title: Colorado River Fire Rescue Team Assists in Containing Horse River Fire in Minnesota Wilderness

A team of Colorado River Fire Rescue’s Wildland Division firefighters is on the ground in northern Minnesota this week, helping to suppress the growing Horse River Fire burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The Horse River Fire, sparked by lightning on Thursday, May 22, has doubled in size to nearly 25 acres. Fueled by thick duff and dead balsam fir trees, the fire is burning uncontained in a remote section of the wilderness near the Canadian border. The U.S. Forest Service has closed a portage between Jackfish Bay and Lower Basswood Falls, along with the immediate fire area, and issued warnings to paddlers to avoid the region.

The rugged, roadless location requires a specialized approach. A 10-person team from Colorado River Fire Rescue’s Type 2 Wildland Fire Module, known as the Burning Mountain crew, serves Rifle, Silt and New Castle. They paddled by canoe for eight hours to reach the fireline.

Once the team arrived at their spike camp deep in the wilderness, a helicopter sling-loaded 1,200 pounds of supplies — including food, water, and gear — to sustain the crew for up to two weeks of operations. The supplies are essential for self-sufficiency, given the remote setting and the crew’s need to remain on the fire line for extended periods.

“It’s a pretty remote area, and communications have been limited because of where they’re at,” said Zach Pigati, CRFR Wildland Division chief. “They’re on the fire now, working to keep it from spreading.”

Pigati said CRFR’s deployment is part of its role as a national resource. The team is trained for self-sufficient operations in challenging environments across the country, including previous assignments on the Los Angeles fires and wildfires in the Pacific Northwest in 2024.

“Just because we’re working out of state doesn’t mean we can’t pull our crews back if there’s a need here in our own district,” Pigati said. “That’s always a priority.”

CRFR’s team left Rifle on Monday and arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday. The team is one of only three in the nation outside the federal system that can operate independently for extended periods on the fire line.

“A lot of that has to do with availability of the resources they’re looking for,” Pigati said. “There are other Wildland Fire Modules in the nation but a lot of them are already committed to other fires.”

While the Horse River Fire is small compared to others, Pigati said the situation is about resource capacity across the region. Minnesota is also battling the Jenkins Creek Fire, which has burned more than 16,000 acres, and the Camp House Fire, which has reached over 12,000 acres. Both are nearing containment, but the larger fires have tied up most of the local firefighting resources.

As for CRFR’s efforts, the team is using hand tools to cut fire lines and may use controlled burning to clear fuels. Pigati said the work can resemble building a narrow mountain bike trail through the forest, with crews cutting lines, digging, and sometimes using fire to remove unburned fuels.

“There’s a lot of monitoring involved,” Pigati said. “Sometimes the fire just needs to do its thing and clean up the forest, and sometimes it needs people there to say, ‘Hey, it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.’ That’s where the expertise of our WFM team comes in — understanding the fire, reading it, and making decisions on how best to manage it.”

There is currently no containment on the Horse River Fire. Pigati said the CRFR team’s standard deployment is about two weeks, but they could be released earlier if the fire is brought under control.

“They don’t have any moisture forecasted for the area, so we’re watching the situation closely,” Pigati said.