ELY TOWNSHIP -- UPDATE: 6:46 a.m. Wednesday, May 2
A wildfire burned 62 acres in southern Marquette County Tuesday night. DNR firefighters formed a perimeter line around the entire fire. Officials did not expect it to spread. No homes in the Ely Township area were evacuated and no one was been injured. The fire started around 6 p.m. Tuesday night.
The woods are very dry and the fire was spreading north, with a stiff south wind pushing it. Earlier Tuesday evening, a DNR plane was tracking the direction of the fire. There were 20 DNR firefighters on the scene, along with firefighters from the Ishpeming Township Fire Department.
Crews were going to remain on the scene overnight.
"The plan is for the rest of the night to go back through and improve our dozer lines, and those lines are an effort to remove fuel away from the fire, and then once those are improved, we'll get water units in there, our brush trucks, and they'll start hosing down the fire's edge," said DNR Fire Supervisor, Pete Glover.
The DNR has a skidder and a couple of dozers working the fire line. Officials do not have a cause for the wildfire. It was contained Tuesday night.
Officials said weather conditions are improving and that will help overnight and with mop up operations planned for Wednesday.
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UPDATE: 10:50 p.m. Tuesday, May 1
Crews will remain on the scene overnight. The DNR has a skidder and a couple of dozers working the fire line.
It is contained. Officials say weather conditions are improving and that will help overnight and with mop up operations planned for Wednesday.
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UPDATE: 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, May 1
The fire is 62 acres. DNR and Ishpeming Township firefighters have a dozer line around it. The fire is contained. No evacuations have been ordered. There have been no injuries and no structures have been damaged. There is no word yet on how the fire started.
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Fire crews are battling a wildfire near Marquette County Road 581 in Ely Township. The fire was reported Tuesday afternoon.
It started near the former Johnson Air Field. It was initially reported as a 15 acre fire. It had grown to 30 acres by 7 p.m.
There are no reports of injuries or damage to any structures. TV6's Steve Asplund is on the scene. We'll have more information as it becomes available.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWLUC